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FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 

REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY   OF 

PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


Bfabloa 


2711/ 


v.£ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/lifecorr02smit 


y 


Life  and  Correspondence 


OF   THE 


Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D., 

First  Provost  of  the  College  and  Academy  of  Philadelphia. 
First  President  of  Washington  College,  Maryland.     President  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  of  Phila- 
delphia.    President  of  the  Corporation  for  the  Relief  of  the  IVido~.vs  and  Children  of 
Clergymen   in   the    Communion  of  the  Church   of  England  in   America. 
Secretary  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  etc.,  etc. 


WITH  COPIOUS  EXTRACTS  FROM  HIS  WRITINGS. 


BY   HIS   GREAT-GRANDSON, 

HORACE   WEMYSS   SMITH, 

Member  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 
Editor  of  the  "Miscellaneous  Works  of  Richard  Penn  Smith,"  of  "  The  York-  Town  Orderly  Book, 

"Andreana,"  etc.,  etc. 


VOL.  II. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
PUBLISHED  BY  FERGUSON  BROS.  &  CO., 

IS   NORTH    SEVENTH    STREET. 
l88o. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

S.  A.   GEORGE  &  CO., 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


FERGUSON     BROS.     &.    CO., 

PRINTERS    AND     ELECTROTYPERS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Dr.  Smith  Preaches  in  the  Churches  near  the  Valley  Forge — His  Cat- 
tle and  Horses  are  taken  for  the  Army,  but  Restitution  or  Com- 
pensation is  Honorably  made  by  Order  of  General  Washington — 
Makes  Observations  along  with  Rittenhouse  and  other  Men  of 
Science,  on  an  Eclipse  of  the  Sun — Preaches  on  St.  John's  Day, 
before  Washington  and  the  Society  of  Free  Masons 9 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

On  the  Evacuation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British,  Dr.  Smith  returns 
to  the  City,  and  begins  the  Work  of  Re-establishing  the  College — 
His  Great  Services  of  every  sort,  Literary,  Fiscal  and  of  Business 
Generally,  herein — The  College  Finances  put  upon  as  good  a  Foot 
as  Practicable  in  the  Supremacy  of  Continental  Paper — Instructors 
brought  back,  and  Degrees  again  Ordered  to  be  Conferred 13 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

The  Abrogation  of  the  College  Charter  by  President  Reed  and  the 
Legislature  of  Pennsylvania — A  Truthful  and  Eloquent  History 
of  the  Transaction  by  the  Provost  Stille  —  The  Transaction 
Characterized  and  Condemned — The  Episcopal  Academy  Founded 
in  Consequence  of  the  Injustice  done  to  the  College — Dr.  Smith 
left  without  means  of  living — Final  Repeal  in  1789  of  the  Act  of 
Abrogation  as  Repugnant  to  Justice,  Unconstitutional,  and  Danger 
ous  to  Chartered  Rights 18 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

Dr.  Smith  interests  himself  in  having  General  Washington  made  a 
Grand  Master  over  all  the  Masonic  Lodges  formed  or  to  be  formed 
in  the  United  States 29 

CHAPTER  XL. 

Dr.  Smith  goes  to  Chestertown,  Kent  County,  Maryland,  and  estab- 
lishes his  School,  which  finally  became  Washington  College — 
Takes  charge  of  a  Parish  there — Preaches  a  Thanksgiving  Sermon 
for  the  Establishment  of  Peace  and  Independence,  July  4.TH,  1780 — 
Assembles  the  Church  in  Convention,  November  9TH,  1780 — The 
First  Church  Convention  in  Maryland — Address  of  the  Parishes 

(3) 


CONTENTS. 

to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State — The  Name  "  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church"  first  given  to  the  Church  of  England  at  this 
Convention 

CHAPTER  XLI. 


34 


Dr.  Smith  Preaches  a  New  Year's  Sermon  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Phila- 
delphia— Proposes  General  Washington  as  a  Member  of  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society — General  Washington's  Letter  of  Ac- 
ceptance to  Dr.  Smith — Dr.  Smith  to  Caesar  Rodney — Dr.  Smith 
Preaches  a  Funeral  Sermon  at  the  Burial  of  Mrs.  Coudon — 
Preaches  in  May,  1781,  a  Fast  Sermon  in  Chestertown,  and  in  De- 
cember of  the  same  Year  a  Thanksgiving  Sermon — Extracts  i  rom 
these  Two  Last — Death  of  John  Wemyss — Extract  from  the  Min- 
utes of  the  Grand  Lodge — The  Ahiman  Rezon 39 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

Dr.  Smith  Preaches  a  Funeral  Discourse  on  the  Rev.  Hugh  Neill,  of 
whom  some  account  is  given — Death  of  Mrs.  Blackwell,  Wife  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Blackwell — Notice  and  Elegiac  Stanzas  upon  her 
Death  attributed  to  Dr.  Smith — The  Convention  of  1782  in  Mary- 
land— Success  of  Kent  County  School,  and  Development  of  Wash- 
ington College,  Maryland— Death  of  William  Moore,  Esq.,  of 
Moore  Hall 59 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 

Dr.  Smith's  Account  of  Washington  College — Address  to  the  Inhabi- 
tants of  Maryland  in  regard  to  the  College — List  of  the  Sub- 
scriptions— Dr.  Smith  and  Peregrin  Lethbury  to  the  Assembly  of 
Maryland — Address  of  the  Visitors  to  the  Assembly — Dr.  Smith  in 
behalf  of  the  Visitors  to  General  Washington — General  Wash- 
ington to  Dr.  Smith  in  reply — Proceedings  of  the  Assembly  of 
Maryland 65 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

First  Commencement  of  Washington  College,  May  14,  1783 — List  of 
Graduates — Corner-Stone  Laid — Convention  at  Chestertown,  May 
12,  1783 — Petition  the  Assembly — Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White — 
Convention  at  Annapolis,  August  13,  1783 — Petitions  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  Maryland — Declaration  of  Rights — Notice  of 
Rev.  Thomas  Gates — Dr.  Smith  Chosen  for  Bishop  of  Maryland — 
Clergy  of  Maryland  Give  Recommendation  of  him  for  Consecration 
to  the  Bishop  of  London — Notices  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon  and  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  West — Marriage  of  Dr.  Smith's  Eldest  Daughter.  ...     87 

CHAPTER  XLV. 

Dr.  White,  Dr.  Blackwell  of  Pennsylvania  and  Dr.  Beach  of  New 
Jersey  Desirous  of  a  Continental  Convention — Dr.  Smith  in  Mary- 
land Assists  the  Project — Dr.   Smith  to    Dr.   White — A    Church 


CONTENTS.  5 

Conference  is  Made  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Clergy  to  Re-establish  the 
Corporation  for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Children  of  the 
Clergy,  Founded,  1769 — Ecclesiastical  Convention  of  Pennsylvania, 
May  25TH,  1784 — Declaration  by  it  of  Principles — Ecclesiastical 
Convention  of  Maryland,  June  22D,  1784 — Dr.  Smith's  Sermon  at  it — 
Declaration  by  it  of  Principles  Sufficiently  Harmonious  with  those 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention — Convention  of  Several  States  in 
New  York,  October  6th,  1784 — Dr.  Smith  Presides — Fundamental 
Principles  Declared  by  it,  and  Proceedings  End — Dr.  Smith  Chair- 
man of  Committee  to  Frame  an  Ecclesiastical  Constitution  and  to 
Framc  and  Propose  a  Proper  Substitute  for  the  State  Prayers — Dr. 
Smith  Elected  President  of  the  Corporation  for  the  Relief  of  the 
Widows,  etc 103 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 

Convention  of  the  Church  in  Seven"  States,  held  a.  d.  1785,  at  Christ 
Church  in  Philadelphia — Dr.  Smith  Chairman  of  a  Committee  to 
make  a  Review  of  and  Further  Alterations,  with  Additions  to  the 
Liturgy  —  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  Presented  in  a  Condensed 
Form — The  Alterations,  Additions  and  Condensation  Adopted  by 
the  Convention — The  Whole  Ordered  to  be  Printed  in  a  Book — 
The  Proposed  Book — Dr.  Smith  Requested  to  Preach  a  Sermon  at 
the  Close  of  the  Convention  suited  to  the  Solemn  Occasion — He 
does  so — Extracts  from  the  Sermon — Dr.  White,  Dr.  Smith  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  C.  H.  Wharton,  at  this  time  of  New  Castle,  Delaware, 
but  better  known  afterwards  as  Dr.  Wharton,  of  Burlington,  New 
Jersey,  appointed  a  Committee  to  see  the  Proposed  Book  through 
the  Press 118 

CHAPTER  XLVII. 

Correspondence  between  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  White,  with  a  Letter 
from  Dr.  Wharton  to  the  latter  while  the  Copy  of  the  "  Proposed 
Book  "  was  going  through  the  Press,  including  Dr.  White's  "  Hints 
for  a  Preface,"  and  Dr.  Smith's  Preface — Dr.  Smith  to  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Parker 141 

CHAPTER    XLVIII. 

The  "  Proposed  Book  " — Absurd  Pretensions  of  the  so-called  "  Re- 
formed Episcopal  Church,"  that  the  Schism  of  their  Sect  found 
Support  in  it— History  of  the  Formation  of  the  Book — Dr.  Smith 
chiefly  entitled  to  the  Credit  of  it — Some  Description  of  the 
Respective  Ecclesiological  Characters  and  Tastes  of  Dr.  Smith,  Dr. 
White  and  Dr.  Wharton,  as  applied  to  this  Subject — Dr.  Smith's 
Services  in  Procuring  the  Episcopal  Succession — Adjourned  General 
Convention  of  1786  at  Wilmington — A  Partial  Compliance  with  the 
Suggestions  of  the  English  Archbishops — Dr.  White,  Dr.  Provost 
and  Dr.  Griffith  Recommended  to  the  English  Bishops  for  Conse- 
cration— Maryland  Convention  of  1786 — Attestation  by  his  Parish 
Officers  in  Maryland  of  Dr.  Smith's  Fitness  for  Consecration..  ..   203 


O  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XLIX. 

Matters  Contemporaneous  with  and  Collateral  to  the  General  Ec- 
clesiastical Councils — The  Proposed  Book,  etc. — Church  Convention 
in  Maryland,  1784 — Efforts  to  Prevent  the  Apostacy  of  the  Meth- 
odists—  Second  Commencement  of  Washington  College  —  General 
Washington  Honors  it  with  his  Presence— Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West 
about  the  Funds  for  the  College — Christian  Frederick  Post — His 
Death  and  a  Notice  of  him — A  Friendly  Letter  from  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg to  Dr.  Smith — Ordination  by  Bishop  Seabury  of  a  Pupil  of  Dr. 
Smith  Prepared  for  Holy  Orders  by  the  Latter  and  Recommended 
for  them  by  him — Bishop  Seabury's  great  Satisfaction  with  the 
Candidate  — Church  Convention  in  Maryland,  a.  d.  1785 — Death  of 
Dr.  Charles  Ridgely,  a  Brother- in-Law  of  Dr.  Smith — The  Rev. 
John  M.  Languth — Death  of  General  John  Cadwalader,  a  Nephew 
of  Dr.  Smith  by  Marriage — Dr.  Smith  Preaches  at  the  Funeral — 
Letter  of  Dr.  Smith's  Wife  referring  to  the  Deaths  of  Dr. 
Ridgely  and  General  Cadwalader — Maryland  Convention  of  1787 — 
Ordination  of  Dr.  Smith's  Kinsman,  Richard  Canning  Moore — 
Efforts  to  have  the  Charter  of  the  College  at  Philadelphia 
Restored — Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West 241 

CHAPTER    L. 

The  Proposed  Book  not  so  well  received  as  might  have  been  reason- 
ably expected — The  cause  of  this  thus  explained — Proposed  by  a 
Convention  before  the  Church  was  properly  Organized  by  the 
presence  of  the  Episcopal  Order — The  New  England  Clergy  alarmed 
by  a  wrong  impression  of  the  purpose  of  dr.  white's  "  case  of 
the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States  Considered" — The 
Alterations  not  Agreeable  to  all — Bishop  Seabury's  statement  of 
some  of  the  grounds  of  dislike— state  pride  and  jealousy  as  much 
a  cause  for  the  non-reception  as  any  better  reasons — the  work 
too  hastily  done — letter  to  dr.  west 256 

CHAPTER   LI. 

The  Convention  of  1789,  A  great  Ecclesiastical  Council — Dr.  Smith  is 

CALLED  ON  UNEXPECTEDLY  TO  PREACH  ON  ITS  OPENING,  AND  SOON  AFTER- 
WARDS ON  THE  SUDDEN  DEATH  OF  Dr.  GRIFFITH,  BlSHOP-ELECT  OF  VIR- 
GINIA— A  Memoir  of  Dr.  Griffith — The  Convention  delicately  situ- 
ated    IN    REGARD    TO    BlSHOP    SfABURY — BlSHOP     PROVOOST'S     SOMEWHAT 

eccentric  course  in  regard  to  this  eminent  and  pious  prelate — 
Dignified  course  of  Bishop  Seabury — Dr.  Smith,  along  with  Bishop 
White,  accommodate  matters  between  Bishop  Seabury  and  the 
Convention — The  Validity  of  Bishop  Seabury's  Episcopal  Orders,  on 
motion  of  Dr.  Smith,  fully  Recognized  by  the  Convention — The 
Convention  temporarily  Adjourns  in  order  to  give  time  for  further 
Consultation — Correspondence  between  Dr.  Smith  and  Bishop  Sea- 
bury— The  latter,  with  Representatives  from  New  Hampshire  and 
Maine,  comes  into  the  Adjourned  Convention — A  General  Union 
effected  a.  d.  1789,  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  same  room  in  the  State 


COXTEXTS.  7 

House  where  Independence  was  declared  in  1776,  and  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  signed   in    17S7 — Happy   Conclusion   of 

MICH    LABOR   AND   OF   MANY   SOLICITUDES 264 

CHAPTER    LII. 

The  Convention  now  becomes  Bi-Cameral — Both  Houses  sit  in  the 
State  House;  the  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies,  over  whom  Dr. 
Smith  is  elected  to  preside,  in  the  Chamber  of  Independence — 
Strange  Vicissitudes  in  Dr.  Smith's  Life — The  History  of  the 
Formation  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America — The  House  of 
Bishops  consists  of  Bishop  Seabury  and  Bishop  White,  Bishop  Pro- 
voost  absent — the  selection  of  psalms — some  comparison  of  the 
Proposed  Book  with  the  new  Book  of  Common  Prayer — Prospects 
of  the  Church — Alterations  of  the  Pray'er  Book  deprecated  unless 
in  conjunction  with  the  Church  of  England,  and  unless  the  Books 
of  the  two  Churches  are  made  nearly'  or  quite  alike — Dr.  Smith 
writes  an  Address  ordered  by  the  Convention  to  President  Wash- 
ington AND   ONE  TO   THE   ENGLISH   ARCHBISHOPS 287 

CHAPTER  LIII. 

Restoration  by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  of  the  Charter  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  Unjustly  taken  away  in  1779 — An  Anec- 
dote Illustrative  of  Dr.  Smith's  ready  humor — He  takes  leave 
of  the  Convention  in  Maryland — Bishop  White's  Tribute  to  his 
Services  to  the  Church  and  Otherwise  in  that  State — Dr.  Wroth's 
Account  of  Washington  College — Dr.  Smith's  return  to  Philadel- 
phia, July  ist,  1789 — Proposed  Inscription  upon  his  College — Pro- 
ceedings   IN    THE    DIFFERENT    BRANCHES    OF    THE    RECONSTRUCTION ElRST 

Commencements,  Medical,  and  in  the  Departments  of  Arts,  since 
the  Restoration — Union  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  with  the 
University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  under  the  name  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania — The  Rev.  John  Ewing  elected  Provost 
— The  new  institution  languished  and  continued  to  languish  for 
many  years,  and  until  the  Provostship  of  Dr.  Stille — Dr.  Smith 
preaches  before  the  cincinnati,  july  4th,  179o — engagement  and 
Marriage  of  his  son  Charles  with  Miss  Veates — Death  of  his 
daughter,  mrs.  goldsborough — beautiful  inscription  on  her  tomb 
— Letters  in  connection  with  her  Death 305 

CHAPTER  LIV. 

Death  of  Franklin — Impromptu  thereon  at  a  Dinner  Party  b\'  Dr. 
Smith — Capped  by  Mr.  Thomas  Willing — Franklin's  Funeral — Dr. 
Smith  to  Dr.  West — The  Same  to  the  Same — Dr.  Smith's  Eulogy 
on  Franklin — Une  Anecdote  de  Famille — Dr.  Odel's  Verses  on  the 
Franklin  Stove  —  Franklin  a  Natural  Philosopher  and  not  a 
Statesman 324 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  LV. 

Dr.  Smith  appointed  by  the  Masonic  Order  of  Pennsylvania  to  Pre- 
pare an  Address  to  President  Washington,  which  he  does — He 
Receives  an  Answer  from  the  President — Dr.  Smith  to  Jonathan 
Williams,  Esq. — Marriage  of  Dr.  Smith's  Daughter,  Rebecca,  with 
Mr.  Samuel  Blodget,  of  Boston — Mrs.  Cadwalader  to  Mrs.  Ridgely, 
civing  an  Account  of  the  Wedding,  etc 347 

CHAPTER   LVI. 

The  Yellow  Fever  of  1793  in  Philadelphia — Mr.  Mathew  Carey's 
Account  of  it— Advertisements  and  Communications  in  the  News- 
papers about  it — Extracts  from  Dr.  Smith's  Diary  during  the  Pes- 
tilence— Death  of  Dr.  Smith's  Wife — Address  and  Exhortation  by 
the  Clergy  of  Philadelphia,  etc 365 

CHAPTER   LVII. 

The  Eight  Sermons  on  the  great  Visitation  of  Pestilence  remarked 
on — Distinguished,  even  above  the  Author's  other  Pulpit  Discourses, 
by  Seriousness  and  Solemnity — Extracts  from  several  of  them 381 

CHAPTER   LVIII. 

Dr.  Smith  Devotes  Himself  to  Internal  Improvement  through  the 
Union  Canal  Scheme — His  Half-brother,  Thomas  Smith,  Appointed 
to  the  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania — Death  of  John 
Penn — Dr.  Smith  Preaches  on  the  Subject  of  Itinerant  Missions — 
Also  at  Funeral  of  Col.  Joseph  Rudulph — Also  before  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  Pennsylvania — General  Convention  of  1795 — Consecration 
to  the  Episcopate  of  South  Carolina  of  Dr.  Robert  Smith — Dr. 
William  Smith  Preaches  the  Consecration  Sermon,  also  that  of 
Edward  Bass— Birth  of  Richard  Penn  Smith 407 

CHAPTER   LIX. 

Dr.  Smith  III  at  Lancaster— Fetter  to  his  son,  William  Moore 
Smith — Death  of  Governor  Mifflin — Dr.  Smith  preaches  a  Guarded 
Funeral  Sermon  upon  him — Gilbert  Stuart  makes  a  Portrait  of  Dr. 
Smith— General  Convention  of  1801— Builds  and  Inscribes  a  Mauso- 
leum— His  last  Will 411 

CHAPTER   LX. 

Dr.  Smith  begins  to  publish  his  Works— Only  two  volumes  printed 421 

CHAPTER    LXI. 
Dr.   Smith's    last    illness— Dies— Is    buried    in    his    Mausoleum— His 
funeral 446 

CHAPTER   LXII. 
Causes  of  Dr.  Smith  not  being  consecrated  Bishop  of  Maryland — Con- 
clusion   45° 

APPENDIX 467 


LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE 


OF   THE 


REV.  WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D. 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

Dr.  Smith  Preaches  in  the  Churches  near  the  Valley  Forge — His  Cat- 
tle and  Horses  are  taken  for  the  Army,  but  Restitution  or  Com- 
pensation is  Honorably  made  by  Order  of  General  Washington — 
Makes  Observations,  along  with  Rittenhouse  and  other  Men  of 
Science,  on  an  Eclipse  of  the  Sun — Preaches  on  St.  John's  Day,  before 
Washington  and  the  Society  of  Free  Masons. 

As  the  reader  will  remember,  the  last  chapter  of  Volume  I.  of 
this  work  left  the  British  in  the  possession  of  Philadelphia,  and 
Dr.  Smith  and  part  of  his  family  residing  on  Barbadoes  Island, 
seventeen  miles  above  the  city,  within  an  hour's  ride  of  the  Valley 
Forge.  On  some  occasions  during  the  winter  he  preached  in  the 
churches  in  the  Valley  and  at  Radnor;  both  churches,  as  all  others 
in  the  State,  having  been  vacated  permanently  or  temporarily  by 
their  rectors.  The  Rev.  Mr.  White,  afterwards  the  Bishop,  who 
was  chaplain  of  Congress  at  Yorktown,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Blackwell, 
afterwards  the  well-known  Dr.  Blackwell,  who  was  chaplain  to  the 
First  Pennsylvania  Regiment  and  surgeon  to  one  of  the  regiments 
at  the  Valley  Forge,  and  my  ancestor,  Dr.  Smith,  were,  at  this 
time,  I  presume,  the  only  three  Episcopal  clergymen  in  the  State. 
Mr.  Currie,  in  Chester  county,  had  been  for  some  time  pretty  much 
superannuated,  and  was  now,  I  think,  not  in  the  Commonwealth. 
Mr.  White  was  with  the  Congress,  during  the  occupation,  at  York- 
town.  Mr.  Blackwell,  in  his  double  office  of  spiritual  and  bodily 
physician,  was  closely  occupied  on  the  hills  and  in  the  huts  of  the 

9' 


IO  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_^77^ 

Valley  Forge.  So  that  the  only  person  who  could  perform  any- 
thing like  parochial  duty  was  the  subject  of  our  biography. 

I  find  but  little  of  Dr.  Smith's  correspondence  during  the  winter, 
and  but  little  of  his  personal  history  of  interest  to  the  reader, 
except  that  Michael  Rudulph  and  certain  of  the  troops  drove  off 
some  of  Dr.  Smith's  cattle  and  his  best  horse,  which  was  taken  for 
the  use  of  his  friend,  General  Porter.  However,  upon  an  applica- 
tion to  General  Washington,  his  cattle  were  returned  and  he 
received  pay  for  his  horse. 

On  the  28th  of  March,  Dr.  Smith  was  present  at  a  meeting  of 
the  people,  held  at  Forty  Fort,  Wyoming,  in  regard  to  the  claims 
of  Connecticut  to  lands  in  Pennsylvania ;  a  question  which  long 
and  deeply  agitated  a  portion  of  the  State.  Samuel  Sutton  was 
chairman,  and  Dr.  Smith  reported  to  the  meeting  that  he  and  Dr. 
Ewing  had  succeeded  in  having  the  "  Confirming  Law"  repealed. 

On  the  24th  of  June,  assisted  by  his  old  scientific  friends  of  the 
"Transit"  day — Mr.  Rittenhouse,  Mr.  Lukens,  and  Mr.  Owen 
Biddle — he  made  for  the  Philosophical  Society  the  observations  of 
an  eclipse  of  the  sun.  The  result  of  these  observations  from  the 
manuscript  of  Dr.  Smith,  is  published  entire  in  the  Appendix  of 
"Barton's  Life  of  Rittenhouse." 

On  the  10th  of  July,  1778,  Dr.  Smith  preached  in  Oxford 
Church,  on  the  first  opening  of  the  churches  after  the  evacuation 
of  the  city  by  the  British. 

From  the  28th  of  June,  1777,  to  the  25th  of  September,  1778, 
there  were  no  public  meetings  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
College.  The  affairs  of  the  institution  during  the  occupation  of  the 
city  by  the  British  had  a  great  advantage  from  a  supervision  of 
them  by  the  Honorable  Thomas  Willing,  one  of  the  trustees,  who 
remained  in  the  city  during  that  term  ;  a  gentleman  whose  patriot- 
ism was  never  questioned,  although  he  voted  steadily  against  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  His  very  high  personal  character 
saved  him  from  any  molestation  by  either  side. 

Ebenezer  Kinnersley  died  on  the  4th  of  July,  in  the  year  last 
mentioned ;  his  health,  which  a  residence  of  considerable  length 
in  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies  did  not  re-establish,  having  been 
for  a  good  while  before  enfeebled.  On  the  15th  of  December  of 
this  same  year,  the  minutes  of  the  College  tell  us  that  "  Dr.  Smith 
'informed  the  board  that  some  years  ago  Mr.  Kinnersley  had  made 


I"S]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  II 

an  offer  to  the  College  of  his  electrical  apparatus  and  the  several 
fixtures  belonging  to  it,  upon  a  valuation  to  be  made  by  some 
proper  judges;  that  the  trustees  were  then  disposed  to  accept  of 
the  proposal,  but  that  through  the  disturbance  of  the  times  the 
business  had  not  been  completed ;  that  Mr.  Kinnersley  being  since 
deceased,  the  apparatus,  by  order  of  his  executors,  had  been 
valued  at  about  five  hundred  pounds,  was  now  in  complete  order, 
and  perhaps  equal  to  any  apparatus  of  the  kind  in  the  world,  and, 
therefore,  proper  to  be  kept  as  it  stands,  for  the  use  of  the  College." 

"  The  trustees  who  are  present,"  continued  the  minutes,  "  are  of 
opinion  that  the  said  apparatus  should  be  taken  at  the  valuation 
set  upon  it  for  the  use  of  the  College,  and  that  it  be  inserted  in  the 
notices  to  be  given  of  next  meeting ;  that  money  is  proposed  to  be 
laid  out  in  order  to  have  a  full  authority  for  this  purchase." 

At  the  meeting  thus  called,  and  which  was  held  December  23d, 
1778,  it  was  agreed  "that  the  treasurer  may  pay  Mrs.  Kinnersley 
on  account  of  the  College  for  the  electrical  apparatus,  as  the  same 
has  been  valued  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse  and  Mr.  Bringhurst,  and  that 
the  inventory  thereof  be  procured  and  inserted  in  the  minutes." 

On  the  28th  of  December,  1778,  the  anniversary  of  St.  John,  the 
Evangelist,  the  grand  and  subordinate  lodges  of  Masons  deter- 
mined to  celebrate  the  day  with  a  procession  and  sermon.  They 
appointed  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  Grand  Secretary,  Dr. 
Smith,  and  request  him  to  deliver  the  sermon,  and  to  personally 
wait  on  "  Brother  George  Washington,  and  request  his  excellency 
to  attend  the  procession."  Dr.  Smith,  having  agreed  to  preach 
the  sermon,  waited  upon  the  General,  who  courteously  promised 
to  take  part  in  the  procession.  Accordingly,  at  nine  o'clock  in 
the  morning  of  St.  John's  Day,  nearly  three  hundred  of  the  breth- 
ren assembled  at  the  College,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  went  in  regular 
procession  thence  to  Christ  Church  to  attend  divine  service. 

The  order  of  the  procession  was  as  follows,  viz. : 

1.  The  Sword  Bearer. 

2.  Two  Deacons,  with  blue  wands  tipt  with  gold. 

3.  The  three  orders,  Dorick,  Ionick  and  Corinthian,  borne  by  three 
brethren. 

4.  The  Holy  Bible  and  Book  of  Constitutions,  on  two  crimson  velvet 
cushions,  borne  by  the  Grand  Treasurer  and  Grand  Secretary. 

5.  A  reverend  brother. 


12  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  Yl17^> 

6.  Four  Deacons,  bearing  wands. 

7.  His  Excellency  the    illustrious   Brother   George  Washington, 
Esq.,  supported  by  the  Grand  Master  and  his  Deputy. 

8.  The  two  Grand  Wardens,  bearing  the  proper  pillars. 

9.  The  Past  Masters  of  the  different  lodges. 

10.  The  present  Masters  of  lodges. 

11.  The  Senior  Wardens,      A 

12.  The  Junior  Wardens,  ,  .,      ,.«.  .         ,    , 

„,,     x,  V  of  the  different  private  lodges. 

13.  1  he  Secretaries,  [ 

14.  The  Treasurers,  J 

15.  Brother  Proctor's  band  of  music. 

16.  Visiting  brethren. 

17.  The  members  of  different  lodges,  walking  two  and  two,  accord- 
ing to  seniority. 

The  procession  entered  the  church  in  the  order  of  their  march, 
and  the  brethren  took  their  seats  in  the  pews  of  the  middle  aisle, 
which  were  kept  empty  for  their  reception.  Prayers  were  read  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  White,  and  the  following  anthem  was  sung  in  its 
proper  place  by  sundry  of  the  brethren,  accompanied  by  the  organ 
and  other  instrumental  music,  viz. : 

A  GRAND  SYMPHONY. 

CHORUS. 

Behold  now  good  and  joyful  a  thing  it  is,  brethren,  to  dwell  together 

in  unity. 

SOLO. 

I  will  give  thanks  unto  Thee,  O  Lord  !  with  my  whole  heart 
secretly  among  my  brethren,  and   in  the  congregation 
will  I  praise  Thee :    I  will  speak  the  marvel- 
lous works  of  Thy  hands,  the  Sun, 
the  Moon,  and  the  Stars, 
which  Thou  hast 
ordained. 

SOLO. 

The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  hath  seen  a  great  light,  and 

on  them  that  dwelt  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of 

death  doth  the  glorious  light 

of  Jehovah 

shine. 


> 


1 7/8]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  I  3 

SOLO. 

Thou  hast  gathered  us  from  the  East,  and  from  the  West,  from 

the  North,  and  from  the  South  ;  Thou  hast  made  us 

companions  for  the  mighty  upon  earth,  even 

for  princes  of  great  nations. 

TRIO. 

O  !   I  am  !   inspire  us  with  wisdom  and  strength,  to  support 

us  in  all  our  troubles,  that  we  may  worship  Thee 

in  the  beauty  of  holiness. 

After  which  Dr.  Smith  preached  a  well-adapted  sermon.  The 
text  was  taken  from  the  1st  Epistle  of  Peter,  2d  chapter,  and  16th 
verse.  The  brethren  requested  a  copy  of  the  sermon  for  publica- 
tion, and  the  profits  were  applied  to  the  use  of  the  poor. 

After  divine  service  the  procession  returned  to  the  College ;  the 
musical  bells  belonging  to  the  church  and  the  band  of  music 
playing  proper  Masonic  tunes.  The  brethren  being  all  "  new 
clothed,"  and  the  officers  in  the  proper  jewels  of  their  respective 
lodges,  and  their  other  badges  of  dignity,  made,  we  are  told,  "  a 
genteel  appearance." 

The  brethren  afterwards  departed  to  their  respective  lodges, 
where  they  dined  together.  The  sum  of  ^400  was  collected  in 
the  church,  among  the  brethren  and  others,  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

On  the  Evacuation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British,  Dr.  Smith  returns 
to  the  City,  and  begins  the  Work  of  Re-establishing  the  College— 
His  Great  Services  of  every  sort,  Literary,  Fiscal  and  ok  Business 
Generally,  herein — The  College  Finances  put  upon  as  good  a  Foot 
as  Practicable  in  the  Supremacy  of  Continental  Paper — Instructors 
brought  back,  and  Degrees  again  Ordered  to  be  Conferred. 

Upon  the  evacuation  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British  forces,  Dr. 
Smith  immediately  returned  to  that  city  and  began  to  make 
arrangements  to  again  open  the  College,  Academy  and  Schools. 
The  opening  took  place  early  in  January  of  this  year.  It  at  once 
showed  that  the  character  and  good  fame  which  the  institution 
had  acquired    before   the   war    began   was   still   possessed  by   it. 


14  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Vl779 

"  Pupils,"  says   Dr.  Stille,  "  soon   flocked  to  the  schools ;  though 
the  greater  portion  of  them  was  in  the  lower  departments." 

Political  spirit,  of  course,  still  ran  high.  Arnold  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  city,  and  under  his  permission  the  worst  portion  of  a 
party,  downright  and  profligately  Tory,  was  insolently  asserting 
itself.  Such  a  nest  brought  discredit  and  insult  from  the  common 
people  to  a  very  different  class  of  persons,  and,  indeed,  to  some 
degree  to  all  who  had  ever  belonged  to  the  ancient  proprietary 
party.  Any  man  who  had  not  been  violent  in  denouncing  George 
III.,  and  equally  violent  in  approving  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, exactly  as  and  when  made,  was  a  target  for  the  arrows  of 
every  illiterate  and  malignant  fellow.  Dr.  Smith  came  in  for  a 
good  share.  He  had  hardly  got  back  to  the  city  before  an  igno- 
ramus, named  Cress,  who,  as  the  jurat  showed,  was  unable  to  write 
his  name,  published  in  the  newspapers  an  affidavit  as  follows : 

Deposition  of  Peter  Cress. 

Pennsylvania  ss. 

Before  me,  Plunket  Fleeson,  Esquire,  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Peace, 
&c,  comes  Peter  Cress  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  Saddle  and  Harness 
maker,  and  being  duly  sworn,  deposeth  and  saith,  That  on  the  day  on 
which  the  attack  was  made  by  the  Vigilant  on  the  fortification  at  Mud 
island,  Doctor  William  Smith,  Provost  of  the  college  of  Philadelphia, 
with  a  number  of  other  people  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  was  on  the 
banks  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Schuylkill,  viewing  the  attack  with  a 
large  Spy-Glass  or  Telescope.  That  after  the  firing  from  the  Round 
Tops  of  the  Vigilant  began  and  was  returned  from  the  fort,  he,  the  said 
Peter  Cress,  was  standing  behind  and  very  near  the  said  Doctor  Smith, 
and  heard  him,  the  said  Doctor  Smith,  say,  that  "  if  they  (the  men  in 
the  Fort  meaning)  do  not  surrender  they  ought  every  man  of  them  to 
be  put  to  the  Sword,"  or  words  to  this  effect.  And  further  the  deponent 
saith  not.  his 

PETER  X  CRESS. 
mark 

Sworn  before  me  at  Philadelphia  this  twentieth  day  of  March,  A.  D. 
1779.  PLUNKET  FLEESON. 

Dr.  Smith  replied  to  this  by  a  publication  in  the  same  paper,  in 
which  he  denied  ever  having  spoken  the  words  alleged  against 
him,  or  that  he  had  said  anything  that  could  be  construed  as  mean- 
ing what  they  did.  Of  course  nothing  came  of  the  matter  except 
to  show  that  "  Peter  Cress,  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  Saddle  and 
Harness  maker,"  was  a  super-serviceabie  ass. 


1779]  REV-   WILLIAM  SMITH,  £>.  D.  1 5 

Wc  now  were  beginning  to  feel  severely  the  calamity,  which 
Dr.  Smith  had  foreseen,  of  entering  on  war  before  we  were  at  all 
prepared  for  it,  and  the  consequent  issue  of  paper  money  beyond 
our  ability  to  redeem  it  on  demand.  The  crisis,  indeed,  had  not 
yet  come.  We  were  only  on  the  swelling,  or  rather  on  the  hugely 
swollen  tide  of  a  paper  money  system.  But  this  was  worse  than 
the  crisis  which  soon  after  did  occur.  The  extravagant  deprava- 
tion of  morals  was  frightful.  Arnold  was  in  command  of  the  city, 
and  peculation,  speculation,  debauchery,  and  fraud  of  every  kind 
prevailed.  It  is  set  forth  in  a  paper  by  Mr.  F.  D.  Stone,  read  in  May, 
1 879,  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  entitled,  "  Phila- 
delphia a  Century  Ago,  or  the  Reign  of  Continental  Money."* 
The  minutes  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  show  that  on  the  25th  of 
March,  1779,  both  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Alison  represented  to  the 
Board  that  their  receiving,  "  in  the  present  currency,"  only  double 
the  nominal  sums  of  their  former  salary  was  no  way  adequate  to 
the  increased  price  of  necessaries,  and  prayed  that  the  fact  might 
be  taken  by  the  Trustees  into  consideration.  The  Board  ordered 
that  in  the  notices  of  next  meeting  it  should  be  inserted  that  the 
disposition  of  money  would  be  part  of  the  business  before  it.  At 
this  next  meeting  the  salaries  were  raised. 

The  work  of  the  College  now  goes  on,  though  it  is  to  some 
degree  the  work  of  reconstruction.  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Alison,  at 
a  meeting  of  May  4th,  1779,  informed  the  Board  that  they  had 
examined  one  Mr.  Cochran,  who  offered  himself  as  an  usher  in 
the  Latin  School  at  the  rate  of  ^400  per  annum ;  and  that  they 
were  of  opinion  that,  though  he  had  not  for  some  time  been 
employed  in  teaching  the  classics,  yet  by  diligent  study  he  might 
supply  an  usher's  place.  It  was  therefore  ordered  that  he  be 
received  on  a  quarter's  trial. 

Dr.  Smith's  universal  usefulness  exhibits  itself  now  even  above 
what  it  did  in  earlier  times.  He  was  requested  by  the  Board  to 
visit  the  tenants  on  the  Perkasie  Manor,  and  to  report  the  state 
of  the  farms ;  to  give  the  tenants  notice  that  their  leases  being 
expired  they  must  come  to  Philadelphia  and  enter  into  new  agree- 
ments for  rents  in  wheat,  or  the  price  thereof  as  it  may  be  at 
Philadelphia,  yearly,  when  the  same  becomes  due.     This,  with  an 

*  See  The  Pennsylvania  Journal  of  Biography  and  History,  Vol.  3.,  p.  361 


1 6  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [}779 

authority  "  to  employ  some  person  to  collect  the  old  rails  scattered 
on  the  different  parts  of  the  Norriton  Plantation,  and  enclose  the 
meadows  as  soon  as  possible  to  prevent  them  being  damaged 
further  by  cattle  and  swine,"  was  rather  strange  business  to  put 
upon  the  Provost  of  the  College,  he  too  a  Reverend  Doctor  of 
Divinity  by  diplomas  of  Oxford,  Edinburgh,  and  Dublin.  How- 
ever, disdaining  no  office  in  life  where  he  could  be  useful  to 
science  and  letters,  Dr.  Smith  went  at  it  all  cheerfully  and  did  it 
all  effectively. 

A  controversy  arose  with  Colonel  Bull  about  the  lands  which, 
we  have  mentioned  in  our  first  volume,  were  sold  by  him  to  Dr. 
Smith,  at  or  near  Norristown,  and  which  Dr.  Smith  had  transferred 
to  the  College ;  Colonel  Bull  claiming  certain  small  islands  or 
sand-banks,  which  he  pretended  had  not  passed  by  his  grant  to 
Dr.  Smith,  while  Dr.  Smith  and  the  College,  on  the  strength  of  a 
map  which  accompanied  the  deed,  asserted  that  they  had ;  and, 
moreover,  that  as  certain  parts  of  the  estate,  undeniably  granted, 
were  wholly  useless  and  incapable  of  being  in  the  least  enjoyed, 
unless  the  parts  claimed  by  Colonel  Bull  passed  also,  that  they 
were  absolutely  appurtenant  and  had  been  well  conveyed.  Col- 
onel Bull  finally  relinquished  his  claims. 

He  visited  the  farms  belonging  to  the  College  in  Perkasie 
Manor,  and,  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  whom  he  took  with  him, 
Mr.  John  Heany  and  Colonel  Smith,  one  of  the  members  of 
Assembly  for  Bucks  county,  received  the  proposals  of  the  tenants 
for  new  leases,  and  appointed  them  to  attend  the  Board  of  Trustees 
at  a  meeting  to  be  held  May  1 8th.  The  tenants  accordingly 
attended  at  the  proper  time,  and,  being  called  in  one  after  another, 
the  terms  of  their  future  leases,  for  seven  years  from  the  25th  of 
March,  1779,  were  settled  with  them  severally,  and  leases  were 
ordered  to  be  executed  to  them  under  the  seal  of  the  Corporation, 
and  the  counterparts  duly  executed  to  be  deposited  with  the 
treasurer.  With  respect  to  the  year,  from  25th  March,  1778,  to 
25th  March,  1779,  which  they  have  severally  held  over  their 
former  term,  it  was  mutually  agreed  to  take  a  note  of  hand  from 
each  of  them  for  the  like  payments  in  wheat  or  its  value  on  the 
15th  of  September  next,  as  they  were  severally  to  pay  for  each 
year  of  their  new  term.  Certain  trespassers — Clark,  Painter,  and 
others — on  the  Woodlands  on  Rockhill,  by  making  settlements 


17/9]  REV-    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  \J 

without  leave,  were  ordered  to  move  off  in  three  months  from  the 
day  of  notice  given  them  by  Dr.  Smith,  and  to  remain  accountable 
for  the  damages  and  waste  they  had  committed.  It  was  further 
ordered  that  no  persons  should  be  allowed,  for  the  future,  to  settle 
on  the  said  Woodlands,  but  that  that  portion  of  the  estate  be 
reserved  for  the  supply  of  the  other  plantations*  now  leased,  in 
such  manner  as  the  Trustees  or  their  agents  should  direct.  Lastly 
it  was  ordered  that  a  power  of  attorney  should  be  given  to  Mr. 
Heany,  in  whose  neighborhood  they  were,  to  superintend  the 
plantations  now  leased  in  order  to  prevent  waste  and  breach  of 
covenant. 

The  vigilant  and  effective  agency  of  Dr.  Smith  extended  itself 
over  every  part  of  the  estates  of  the  College.  We  find  him  at  this 
same  meeting  acquainting  the  Board  that  part  of  the  "  New  Build- 
ings" having  been  rented  by  him,  at  the  desire  of  the  Trustees,  to 
one  Mr.  Dancer,  at  the  rate  of  ^"30  per  quarter,  either  party  to 
have  the  liberty  of  giving  the  other  a  quarter's  notice  for  dissolv- 
ing, and  the  value  of  money  being  now  greatly  altered,  he  had 
given  notice  to  Mr.  Dancer  more  than  three  months  ago,  that  he 
could  not  continue  at  that  rent ;  and  that  Mr.  Dancer  had  never 
yet  paid  any  rent.  It  was  accordingly  ordered  that  he  be  called 
upon  for  his  past  rent,  and  that  he  deliver  up  the  house  unless  he 
comes  to  a  new  agreement  for  a  larger  rent. 

How  completely,  indeed,  every  detail — even  those  of  the  most 
homely  and  unappropriate  kind — were  thrown  upon  the  Provost  in 
these  days  of  war  and  desolation  appears  from  the  records  of  a 
meeting  of  the  Trustees,  held  June  1st,  1777,  when  Mr.  Dancer, 
having  been  ejected  from  the  premises  for  which  he  would  pay 
only  in  "bankruptcy"  the  rent  that  he  had  promised  to  pay  in 
bullion,  it  was  ordered  that  an  inventory  be  taken  of  the  kitchen 
furniture,  and  that  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Alison  direct  the  same  to  be 
sold  at  public  vendue,  and  these  gentlemen  were  to  agree  with 
another  person,  one  Monsieur  Marie,  for  one  quarter's  rent  of  the 
house.  However,  in  the  midst  of  all  these  disgusting  details,  the 
care  of  which  would  have  been  better  consigned  to  a  real-estate 
agent — if,  indeed,  one  who  had  the  capacity,  the  zeal,  the  fidelity, 
and    the   humility   of   Dr.   Smith   could   have   been   found — it  is 

*  They  were  fourteen  in  number. 


IS  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE   OF   THE  [_^779 

refreshing  to  discover  an  entry  or  two  in  the  College  minutes 
which  show  that  the  groves  of  the  Academy  still  existed,  and  that 
masters  and  scholars  sometimes  could  refresh  themselves  in  its 
pleasing  walks. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  28th  of  June,  1779,  "The  Provost  repre- 
sented," say  the  minutes,  "  that  the  following  gentlemen  who  have 
been  educated  in  this  Seminary  and  took  their  Bachelor  of  Arts 
degree  with  great  approbation,  had  applied  in  due  time  and  man- 
ner to  be  admitted  to  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  for  which  they 
are  of  standing,  and  qualified  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Institu- 
tion, viz. :  Messrs.  Benjamin  Chew,  Jr.,  John  Mifflin,  William 
Moore  Smith,  James  Abercrombie,  Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  and 
Jacob  Hall."  The  names  of  these  gentlemen  were  accordingly 
ordered  to  be  inserted  in  the  mandate  for  admission  to  the  degree 
aforesaid. 

The  minutes  of  September  14th,  1779,  show  equally  the  zeal 
of  the  Trustees  and  the  Provost  in  getting  the  College  under  its 
ancient  and  full  course  of  usefulness.  He  is  directed  to  "  advertise 
for  an  English  and  Latin  usher,  and  also  to  write  to  Newcastle  to 
engage  a  gentleman  who  teaches  a  Latin  school  in  that  place  and 
formerly  offered  his  services  as  an  usher." 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

The  Abrogation  of  the  College  Charter  by  President  Reed  and  the  Legis- 
lature of  Pennsylvania — A  Truthful  and  Eloquent  History  of  the 
Transaction  by  the  Provost  Stili.e — The  Transaction  Characterized 
and  Condemned — The  Episcopal  Academy  Founded  in  Consequence  of 
the  Injustice  done  to  the  College — Dr.  Smith  left  without  means  of 
living — Final  Repeal  in  1789  of  the  Act  of  Abrogation  as  Repugnant 
to  Justice,  Unconstitutional,  and  Dangerous  to  Chartered  Rights. 

We  come  now  to  the  history  of  a  great  event  in  the  life  of  Dr. 
Smith,  in  the  annals  of  the  College,  and,  as  we  may  add,  of  the 
State  ;  the  abrogation  of  the  College  charter  by  the  President  and 
Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  year  1779,  on  the  alleged 
ground  of  disloyalty  to  the  new  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of  an 
undue  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  Church  of  England. 


'// 


9]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  £>.  D.  1 9 


We  have  stated  in  our  former  volume,*  upon  Dr.  Smith's  own 
authority,  that,  from  private  animosity  towards  Dr.  Smith,  and 
political  dislike  of  the  Penns,  who  were  liberal  patrons  of  the  Col- 
lege, Dr.  Franklin,  while  in  England,  in  1764,  had  represented  to 
sundry  dissenters  that  the  College  was  "  a  narrow,  bigoted  institu- 
tion," put  into  the  hands  of  the  Proprietary  party  as  an  engine  of 
government;  that  the  dissenters  had  no  influence  in  it — although, 
as  Dr.  Smith  observed,  all  the  professors  in  it  but  himself  were 
Dissenters — that  the  College  had  no  occasion  to  ask  assistance 
from  abroad,  and  that  the  country  and  province  would  readily 
support  it  if  it  were  not  for  the  things  above  stated ;  and  that  Dr. 
Franklin,  with  virulence,  had  made  many  other  representations 
grievously  reflecting  upon  the  principal  persons  concerned  in  the 
Institution. 

I  have  shown  how  false  and  how  much  inspired  by  personal  and 
political  animosities  were  these  statements  of  the  great  philosopher. 

Coming  from  a  man  so  well  known  and  regarded  by  so  many 
persons  as  one  of  impartiality,  the  statements  were  not  without  a 
pernicious  and,  as  we  shall  see,  a  lasting  effect ;  one,  indeed,  as  we 
may  admit,  greatly  beyond — both  in  the  matter  of  duration  and 
effect — what  Dr.  Franklin  himself — whose  object  was  doubtless 
confined  to  thwarting  Dr.  Smith  and  to  injuring  the  Penns  and 
their  friends  in  Philadelphia — at  all  designed  or  anticipated. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  the  Trustees  of  the  College 
were  composed  of  a  body  of  gentlemen,  the  very  first  in  point  of 
birth,  property,  education,  intelligence,  integrity,  and  honor  to  be 
found  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  While  they  were  not  hasty  in 
rushing  into  a  revolution,  they  were  just  as  far,  as  a  whole,  from 
aiding,  abetting,  or  approving  the  illegal  acts  or  purposes  of  the 
British  ministry.  And  this  same  state  of  disposition,  it  may  be 
affirmed  with  truth,  characterized  the  body  of  the  best  people  of 
Philadelphia. 

But  there  was  in  Pennsylvania  a  violent  party,  distinguished  by 
a  prescriptive  policy,  in  the  eyes  of  which  every  man  who  was  not 
ready  to  rush  into  revolution  was  a  Tory,  and  which,  to  use  the 
language  of  Horace  Binney,  "  implicated  every  such  person  in  a 
lesser  or  greater  treason,  like  the  bye  and  the  main  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  and  his  friends." 

*  Vol.  I.,  p.  336. 


20  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [^779 

President  Reed  was  one  of  this  bitterly  prescriptive  party  ;  none 
of  the  Trustees  of  the  College  were,  and  none  of  the  professors ; 
though  most  of  both  bodies  were  true  patriots,  distinguished  bv 
consistent  fidelity,  not  less  to  the  country  and  the  country's  cause 
than  to  every  interest  committed  to  their  charge. 

On  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  Dr.  Smith  was  awake  to  the 
perils  to  which  all  institutions  having  property  were  subjected  ;  and 
so  early  as  1776  and  during  the  sittings  of  the  First  Republican 
Convention  of  the  State,  a  meeting  was  held  at  his  house  of  promi- 
nent gentlemen  interested  in  maintaining  the  inviolability  of  the 
rights  and  possessions  of  religious  and  scientific  corporations.  Dr. 
Franklin,  President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  in 
which  many  members  were  suspected  of  Toryism,  was  among 
them,  and  promised  to  propose  (as  he  afterwards  did)  to  the  Con- 
vention an  article  securing  all  chartered  rights.  It  is  probable 
enough  that  he  thus  sought  to  repair  to  the  College  the  possible 
injury  which  his  remarks  on  it  in  England  were  likely  to  do  to  it. 
The  article  was  adopted  by  the  Convention,  and  was  an  article  of 
the  Constitution  subsisting  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  about  to 
speak. 

Three  only  of  the  twenty-four  trustees  which  composed  the  Col- 
lege Board  had  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new 
State  of  Pennsylvania  ;  and  different  vacancies,  which  had  occurred 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  were  filled  by  such  men  as 
Robert  Morris,  Francis  Hopkinson,  Alexander  Wilcocks,  Edward 
Biddle,  John  Cadwalader,  and  James  Wilson.  Dr.  Smith  was  the 
only  member  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  Faculty,  and  though 
a  majority  of  the  trustees  belonged  to  that  church,  no  undue  prefer- 
ence had  ever  been  shown  to  its  members,  nor  the  least  effort  to 
inculcate  its  doctrines. 

It  has  been  commonly  supposed,  I  think,  that  the  action  of 
President  Reed  and  of  his  political  friends  was  aimed  against  Dr. 
Smith  and  the  ancient  trustees.  The  Provost  Stille,  as  we  shall 
see,  regards  Dr.  Smith  as  having  been  the  chief  object  of  attack. 
Bishop  White,  however,  tells*  us — and  his  authority,  on  every 
account,  is  of  the  highest  value — that  his  opinion  was,  in  the 
beginning,  and  so  always  remained,  "  that  what  principally  gave 

*  Life  by  \V  '  r ^ — note. 


l779]  REV<    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  21 

offence  was  the  political  complexion  of  the  trustees  lately  chosen. 
They  were  gentlemen,"  adds  the  Bishop,  "  prominent  in  the  Revo- 
lution, but,  in  the  politics  of  the  State,  opposed  to  those  who  gov- 
erned it;"  that  is  to  say,  opposed  to  President  Reed  and  some  of 
his  friends.  They  were  not  of  that  "popular  party"  to  which 
President  Reed  belonged  ;  though  they  were  Republicans  and  the 
faithful  and  uniform  friends  of  Washington,  which  it  would  be  hard 
to  prove  that  President  Reed  himself  ever  was.* 

The  interests  of  the  College  were  defended  against  this  unjust 
attack  with  great  ability,  by  James  Wilson  and  William  Lewis, 
two  of  the  ablest  and  most  upright  lawyers  whom  the  United 
States  have  produced. 

But  I  forbear  to  give  in  my  own  words  a  particular  account  of 
this  matter,  since  the  history  has  been  succinctly,  fearlessly, 
truthfully,  and  well  told  by  the  Provost  Stille,  in  a  recital  of  it 
which  no  man  can  improve.     The  Provost  says : 

On  the  23d  of  February,  1779 — more  than  two  hundred  pupils 
having  already  flocked  to  the  Schools — the  Assembly  of  the  State  passed 
the  following  resolution  : 

"Ordered  that  Mr.  Clymer,  Mr.  Mark  Bird,  Mr.  Hope,  Mr.  Gardiner,  and  Mr. 
Knox,  be  a  Committee  to  inquire  into  the  present  state  of  the  College  and  Academy 
of  Philadelphia,  its  rise,  funds,  etc.,  and  report  thereon  to  the  House,  and  that  they  be 
empowered  to  send  for  persons  and  papers." 

This  Committee  was  met  by  a  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
who,  on  the  16th  of  March,  1779,  delivered  to  them  an  elaborate  state- 
ment prepared  by  Dr.  Smith,  containing  a  complete  history  of  the  Col- 
lege. It  was  designed  to  meet,  and  it  did  meet  fully,  every  objection 
which  had  been  made  against  the  Institution  by  ill-disposed  persons. 
On  all  points  it  seems  to  me  most  satisfactory,  and,  therefore,  I  have 
made  free  use  of  it  in  the  present  Memoir.  This  Committee  of  the 
Assembly,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  never  made  a  Report. 
The  matter  seems  to  have  been  allowed  to  sleep  until  July  of  the  same 
year,  when  it  was  mentioned  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  that  the  President 
of  the  State,  General  Reed,  had  intimated  that  it  would  be  improper  to 
hold  a  public  Commencement  at  that  time,  some  of  the  Trustees,  in  the 

*  See  his  letter  of  1776  to  Charles  Lee,  in  the  dark  days  preceding  the  battle  of 
Trenton  (Lee's  Memoirs,  p.  17S),  and  his  letter  to  General  Gates  in  the  darker  days 
of  Conway's  Cabal,  of  November,  1777,  in  the  History  of  the  Republic,  by  John  C. 
Hamilton,  Vol.  I.,  p.  368.  The  latter  letter,  which,  I  think,  was  not  in  print  until 
printed  by  Mr.  Hamilton  (after  the  Biography  of  President  Reed  by  his  grandson 
was  published),  is  not  given  in  the  Biography.  The  former,  which  is,  was  in  print  before. 


22  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [l/~9 

opinion  of  the  Council,  being  under  legal  disqualifications.  To  this 
strange  menace  the  Trustees  made  the  very  proper  reply,  that  there  was 
a  very  simple  means  of  ascertaining  whether  any  of  them  were  disquali- 
fied, and  if  on  that  account  the  Board  had  lost  its  chartered  rights,  and 
that  was,  by  a  judicial  inquiry,  the  matter  being  wholly  out  of  the 
province  of  the  President  or  his  Council.  The  Trustees,  however, 
thought  it  advisable  "to  defer  to  the  Executive  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment," and  no  Commencement  was  held.*  In  September,  a  newly- 
elected  Assembly  met,  and  the  President  of  the  State,  in  his  message  of 
the  9th  of  that  month,  brought  the  subject  of  the  College  before  them 
in  the  following  terms: 

"The  principal  Institution  of  learning  in  this  State,  founded  on  the  most  free  and 
catholic  principles,  raised  and  cherished  by  the  hand  of  public  bounty,  appears  by  its 
Charter  to  have  allied  itself  so  closely  to  the  Government  of  Britain  by  making  the 
allegiance  of  its  Governors  to  that  State  a  pre-requisite  to  any  official  act,  that  it  might 
well  have  been  presumed  they  would  have  sought  the  aid  of  Government  for  an 
establishment  consistent  with  the  Revolution,  and  conformable  to  the  great  changes  of 
policy  and  government.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  motives,  we  cannot  think 
the  good  people  of  this  State  can,  or  ought  to,  rest  satisfied,  or  the  protection  of  Gov- 
ernment be  extended  to  an  Institution  framed  with  such  manifest  attachment  to  the 
British  Government  and  conducted  with  a  general  inattention  to  the  authority  of  the 
State.  How  far  there  has  been  any  deviation  from  the  liberal  ground  of  its  first 
establishment,  and  a  pre-eminence  given  to  some  societies  in  prejudice  to  others 
equally  meritorious,  the  former  inquiries  of  your  Honorable  House  will  enable  you  to 
determine." 

The  subject  was  referred  to  a  Committee  of  the  House,  and  before 
the  end  of  September  a  majority  of  the  Committee  (three  out  of  five) 
made  a  report  which  was  a  mere  echo  of  the  message  of  the  President. 
They  conclude  by  recommending  that  a  Bill  should  be  brought  in 
"  effectually  to  provide  suitable  funds  for  the  said  Co^cge  (remodelled), 
to  secure  to  every  denomination  of  Christians  equal  privileges,  and 
establish  said  College  on  a  liberal  foundation,  in  which  the  interests 
of  American  liberty  and  independence  will  be  advanced  and  promoted, 
and  obedience  and  respect  to  the  Constitution  of  the  State  preserved." 

*  The  following  was  the  Minute  and  resolve  of  the  Trustees  of  the  College  : 

"College  of  Philadelphia,  July  8th,  1779. 

"As  the  President  of  the  State  has  thought  proper  to  inform  this  Board,  through 
some  of  its  members,  that  certain  legal  objections  lay  to  the  exercise  of  some  of  their 
rights  under  their  charter,  and  to  advise  the  not  holding  a  commencement  at  the  time 
appointed,  the  Board  have,  for  the  present,  deferred  holding  the  commencement  from 
an  expectation  that  some  mode  will  be  speedily  adopted  on  the  part  of  Government  to 
draw  such  their  rights  into  question  in  a  legal  way,  when  this  board  will  take  the 
proper  steps  to  defend  their  charter  according  to  law. 

"Resolved,  That  Mr.  Willing,  Mr.  Powell,  and  Mr.  Hopkinson  be  a  committee  to 
communicate  the  sense  of  the  Board  on  this  subject  to  the  President." 


1779]  A£l'-   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.D.  23 

The  minority  of  the  Committee  reported  that  "no  evidence  had  arisen 
during  the  inquiry  to  support  the  same,  but  that  much  the  contrary  had 
appeared."  The  House  refused  a  motion  that  the  evidence  upon  which 
the  report  was  founded  should  be  laid  before  it,  and  also  voted  against 
taking  the  opinion  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  upon  the  legal 
questions  involved,  although  they  had  been  summoned  for  that  purpose. 

A  Bill  was  accordingly  brought  in,  and  on  the  27th  of  November, 
1779,  was  enacted  into  a  law,  declaring  the  charter  of  1755  void,  dis- 
solving the  Board  of  Trustees  and  the  Faculty,  and  vesting  the  College 
estates  in  a  new  Board  of  Trustees  composed  of  certain  State  officials,  of 
the  senior  Clergyman  of  each  of  the  principal  religious  denominations 
in  the  City,  and  of  sundry  other  persons  who  were  conspicuous  members 
of  the  political  party  which  at  that  time  controlled  the  State.  The  Act 
provided  also  that  the  Council  should  reserve  for  the  use  of  the  new 
Institution,  which  was  called  "The  University  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania," ^1500  a  year  from  the  proceeds  of  the  confiscated  estates. 

As  this  Act  of  the  Legislature  was  the  severest  blow  which  the  higher 
interests  of  learning  in  this  State  ever  received  (as  no  one  who  has  read 
the  foregoing  account  of  Dr.  Smith's  services,  and  who  knows  anything 
of  the  history  of  the  Institution  during  the  years  which  followed  can 
doubt"),  and  as  it  appears  on  its  face  to  be  a  simple  act  of  spoliation, 
transferring  the  property  of  one  set  of  men  to  the  pockets  of  another, 
we  must  examine  somewhat  minutely  the  reasons  given  for  this  extra- 
ordinary proceeding.  Upon  looking  at  the  Preamble  of  the  Act,  we 
find  the  most  frivolous  and  unfounded  of  all  the  pretexts  which  had 
been  alleged  in  the  report  of  the  Committee  and  the  message  of  the 
President  as  reasons  for  the  abrogation  of  the  Charter,  made  the  basis 
of  the  Assembly's  action.  It  is  there  stated  that  the  Trustees  by  a  vote 
or  by-law  adopted  June  14,  1764,  "  departed  in  the  management  of  the 
Institution  from  the  free  and  unlimited  Catholicism  of  its  original 
founders."  On  turning  to  the  by-law  referred  to  we  find  that  it  was 
the  fundamental  Declaration  adopted  by  the  Trustees  in  regard  to  the 
use  of  the  money  then  recently  collected  by  Dr.  Smith  in  England,  the 
very  object  and  intention  of  that  Declaration,  as  has  been  before  stated, 
being  to  perpetuate  the  "free  and  unlimited  Catholicism"  of  the 
Founders  of  the  College.*  Anything  more  preposterous  than  such  a 
reason  for  so  grave  an  act  (strangely  ranked  by  the  biographer  of 
President  Reed  as  a  trophy  of  his  administration  of  the  government 
with  the  Act  abolishing  slavery  in  Pennsylvania)  it  would  be  difficult 
to  conceive. 

The  only  other  cause  of  incapacity  alleged  in  the  Act  against  the 
Trustees  was  that  provision  in  the  Charter  of  1755  which  required  them 
before  entering  upon   their  office   to  take  certain  oaths  of  allegiance. 

*  See  Vol.  I.,  rp.  350,  35 1. -II.  W.  S. 


24  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l779 

But  these  oaths  were  precisely  the  same  which  had  been  exacted  of 
every  one  called  to  fill  any  civil  office  in  the  province  prior  to  the 
Revolution,  and  their  obligation  was  always  understood  to  have  ceased 
upon  the  establishment  of  a  new  government.  The  Trustees  were 
therefore  precisely  in  the  same  position  as  any  one  who  had  ever  held 
office  under  the  Crown.  Test  oaths,  and  oaths  of  allegiance,  are,  as  we 
all  know,  favorite  devices  in  revolutionary  times.  The  Assembly,  as  a 
means  most  probably  of  discovering  the  disaffected,  directed  on  the 
13th  of  June,  1777,  that  every  white  person  above  the  age  of  eighteen 
should  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  State,  and  by  another  act 
passed  on  the  first  of  April,  17 78,  enacted  that  all  Trustees,  Provosts, 
Professors,  and  Masters  (among  others)  should  take  the  same  oath 
before  the  first  of  June  of  that  year,  or  forfeit  their  offices.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  form  of  the  oath  : 

"  I,  A.  B.,  do  swear  that  I  renounce  and  refuse  all  allegiance  to  George  III.,  King 
of  Great  Britain,  his  heirs  and  successors,  that  I  will  be  faithful  and  bear  true  alle- 
giance to  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  as  a  free  and  independent  State,  that  I 
will  not  at  any  time  do  or  cause  to  be  done  any  matter  or  thing  that  will  be  prejudicial 
or  injurious  to  the  freedom  and  independence  thereof  as  declared  by  Congress;  and 
also  that  I  will  discover  and  make  known  to  some  one  Justice  of  the  Peace  of  said 
State  all  treasons  or  traitorous  conspiracies  which  I  now  know  or  hereafter  may  know 
to  be  formed  against  this,  or  any  other  of  the  United  States  of  America." 

Twelve  of  the  Trustees,  the  Provost,  and  all  the  Professors,  took  this 
oath  as  required  by  law,  before  June  1,  1778.  By  November,  1779, 
when  the  Charter  was  taken  away,  the  Board  was  full,  and  twenty-one 
out  of  the  twenty- four  Trustees  had  previously  taken  the  oath,  the  three 
who  had  not  done  so  being  Richard  Penn,  William  Allen,  and  Dr. 
Bond.  It  is  a  little  remarkable  as  showing  how  different  were  the  real 
reasons  for  taking  away  the  Charter  from  those  which  were  assigned  in 
the  Act,  that  notwithstanding  his  alleged  disqualification,  Dr.  Bond 
was  named  in  it  as  a  Trustee  of  the  new  corporation,  as  were  also  three 
others,  who  had  not  only  never  taken  the  oath  to  the  State,  but  had  just 
before  taken  it  to  the  King,  one  of  whom  had  served  as  Chaplain  in  the 
British  Army  while  it  occupied  Philadelphia. 

The  grounds  upon  which  the  Assembly  proceeded,  as  stated  in  the 
Act  itself,  being  thus  wholly  without  foundation,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
add  that  the  action  it  took  was  expressly  forbidden  by  the  provisions  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  State,  in  regard  to  property  held  for  the  use  of 
churches,  colleges,  and  hospitals,  by  the  well-known  doctrine  that,  no 
misconduct  of  a  Trustee  can  work  a  forfeiture  of  his  trust,  and  by  the 
equally  well-settled  rule  that,  alleged  infractions  of  a  Charter  are  to  be 
determined  by  judicial  proceedings,  and  not  by  the  Legislature. 

It  has  been  sometimes  said  that,  although  the  abrogation  of  the 
Charter  was  made  without  legal  authority,  yet  that  it  may  have  been 


1779]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2$ 

justifiable  at  that  period  of  the  Revolution  for  reasons  of  State  policy. 
Before  admitting  such  a  plea  as  a  safe  criterion  in  this  case,  we  must 
remember  that  the  College  Charter  was  in  existence,  and  the  College 
itself  was  in  full  operation  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, which  was  subsequent  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
that  the  Convention,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  its  organization,  solemnly 
guaranteed  the  protection  of  its  property  and  franchises.  Nor  had  any 
change  taken  place  since,  either  in  the  men  who  controlled  it,  or  in  the 
system  of  instruction,  which  could,  in  any  way,  be  construed  as  un- 
favorable to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution.  The  vacancies  in  the 
Board  of  Trustees  since  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been 
filled  by  Robert  Morris,  Francis  Hopkinson,  Alexander  Wilcocks, 
Edward  Biddle,  John  Cadwalader  and  James  Wilson,  and  no  Penn- 
sylvanian  need  be  told  that  these  were  among  the  most  eminent  patriots 
of  the  Revolution.  The  system  of  instruction  was  also  wholly  un- 
changed, and  as  if  nothing  should  be  wanting  to  prove  that  the  act  was 
•  one  of  simple  spoliation,  that  system,  and  every  one  of  the  Professors 
of  the  old  College,  in  both  Faculties,  except  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Alison 
(who  had  died  during  the  controversy),  were  transferred  to  the  new 
institution. 

We  are,  therefore,  compelled  to  conclude  that  the  conduct  of  the 
Assembly  rested  upon  no  legal  authority,  nor  upon  the  broader  ground 
of  an  overruling  necessity;  but  that  it  is  the  most  striking  instance  of 
the  baneful  effects  of  an  unscrupulous  party-spirit  recorded  in  our  State 
history.  Its  object  was  to  strike  down  and  disfranchise  the  purest  and 
best  men  in  the  community,  associated  in  an  undertaking  which  had 
brought  nothing  but  honor  and  advantage  to  the  State.  To  conciliate 
the  unthinking  masses,  and  as  some  apology  for  the  spoliation,  a  pre- 
tence was  made  of  establishing  a  new  Institution  upon  a  broader  basis 
than  the  old,  and  the  cheap  device  was  resorted  to  of  endowing  it  with 
the  proceeds  of  the  confiscated  estates.  One  of  the  complaints  against 
the  old  College  had  been,  that  it  had  never  applied  to  the  State  author- 
ities for  money,  and  it  was  thought  that  the  prosperity  of  the  new  was 
certainly  assured  by  the  Legislative  grant  of  ^1500  a  year.  But  it 
never  prospered.  The  original  taint  of  its  birth  seems  to  have  poisoned 
all  its  sources  of  growth,  so  that  on  the  22d  of  August,  1791,  just  before 
its  dissolution,  when  the  College  estates  had  been  restored  to  their 
rightful  owners,  its  debts  are  stated  in  a  minute  of  that  date  to  be 
^5187,  nearly  all  due  to  the  Professors  for  arrears  of  salary,  while  its 
resources  from  its  income  were:  "Debts  recoverable  by  next  March,  say 
^2000;  due  from  the  State,  ^375. " 

But  there  were  other  sources  of  decay,  inherent  in  the  scheme  itself, 
and  rapidly  developed  by  the  influences  surrounding  it,  which  must 
have  soon  proved  fatal  to  it.  Of  all  human  institutions,  it  may  be  most 
truly  said  of  Colleges  and  Universities,  that  they  "are  things  that  grow, 


26  LIFE   AXD    COR  RESPOND  EXCE    OF    THE  \_I/79 

and  are  not  made."  A  popular  error  prevails  that  a  large  endowment, 
an  extended  curriculum,  and  an  imposing  array  of  Professors,  are  all 
that  is  necessary  to  insure  the  permanent  success  of  a  newly-founded 
College.  Such  an  opinion  is  contradicted  by  universal  experience. 
Both  in  Europe  and  in  this  country,  institutions  of  learning  which  have 
gained  reputation  and  success  have  all  had  their  day  of  small  things, 
and  their  present  strength  is  only  the  natural  development  of  a  slow 
but  steady  and  healthy  growth.  There  have  been  thousands  of  failures, 
where  the  greatest  zeal,  aided  by  large  endowments,  has  established 
Colleges.  Defects  in  the  most  brilliant  projects  have  been  brought  to 
light  by  experience,  or  the  soil  in  which  they  were  planted  has  not 
proved  kindly  to  their  nurture.  Such  was  the  case  with  the  shortdived 
"University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania." 

He  must  indeed  have  been  a  bold  and  sanguine  man  who  thought  it 
possible  to  establish,  with  any  chance  of  success,  a  new  College  in  this 
State  in  the  year  1779.  In  the  very  crisis  of  the  Revolution,  with  the 
fortune  of  every  man  who  had  been  engaged  in  trade  ruined  by  the 
worthlessness  of  the  currency,  with  the  cost  of  living  increased  in  the 
proportion  of  sixty  to  one,  with  every  nerve  strained  to  keep  up  the 
sinking  fortunes  of  the  war,  with  dissensions  among  the  best  men  in 
the  State  more  bitter  than  their  hatred  of  the  common  enemy;  with 
the  belief  among  nearly  all  who  had  been  real  supporters  of  learning 
that  the  Charter  had  been  taken  away  from  party  malice,  and  that  the 
new  institution  would  be  managed  in  such  a  way  as  to  subserve  party 
ends;  above  all,  with  the  ever-present  consciousness  that  the  money 
they  were  using  did  not  belong  to  them  in  law  or  morals,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  projectors  of  the  new  establishment  soon  found 
that  they  had  been  building  upon  the  sand.  There  was  certainly  but 
one  man  living  in  this  State,  at  that  time,  who  could  have  carried  even 
an  old  College  successfully  through  the  dangers  which  threatened  the 
interests  of  learning  during  the  Revolution,  and  for  ten  years  after- 
wards, and  that  was  the  very  man  whom  a  blind  party-zeal  had  driven 
from  his  post.  When  we  consider  what  Dr.  Smith  did  for  those  inter- 
ests during  the  twenty-five  years  in  which  they  had  been  in  his  special 
charge,  we  may  form  some  estimate  of  the  loss  sustained,  both  by  the 
College  and  the  State,  by  the  forced  employment  of  the  remaining 
twenty-five  years  of  his  life  in  other  pursuits. 

As  the  removal  of  Dr.  Smith  was,  no  doubt,  the  great  object  aimed 
at  in  the  abrogation  of  the  Charter,  so  he  was  the  chief  victim  of  that 
measure.  He  had  to  mourn  not  merely,  in  common  with  all  his 
friends,  that  the  work  he  had  been  so  long  painfully  building  up  was  in 
ruin,  and  that  the  pledges  which  he  had  given  as  to  the  management 
of  the  funds  which  he  had  collected  were  shamefully  violated,  but  he 
was  ejected  from  his  office,  and  without  the  means  of  supporting  his 
family.     But  it  was  not  in  the  man's  nature  to  despond.     Feeling  that 


17/9]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2"J 

he  could  hope  for  no  redress  in  Pennsylvania,  as  its  Government  was 
then  constituted,  he  went  to  Chestertown,  in  Maryland,  and  became 
Rector  of  a  church  there.  He  found  at  that  place  an  Academy  with 
a  few  pupils.  He  was  made  Principal  of  it,  and  in  a  short  time  one 
hundred  and  forty  scholars  were  in  attendance.  He  then  applied  to 
the  Legislature  of  Maryland  for  a  Charter,  erecting  this  Academy  into 
a  College,  modelled  upon  the  plan  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  to 
be  called  "Washington  College."  The  charter  was  granted  in  the 
spring  of  1782,  and  within  one  year  from  that  time  this  indefatigable 
man  collected,  principally  from  the  planters  of  the  Eastern  Shore  of 
Maryland,  nearly  ten  thousand  three  hundred  pounds  towards  its 
endowment.  General  Washington  contributed  fifty  guineas,  and  Gen- 
eral Cadwalader  headed  the  Maryland  subscriptions.  This  was,  of 
course,  before  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  it  is  very  evident 
that  these  gentlemen  did  not  hold  the  opinion  entertained  by  the  party 
in  power  in  Pennsylvania  in  regard  to  Dr.  Smith's  disaffection  to  the 
American  cause. 

But  that  party  ceased  to  reign  in  1783,  and  Dr.  Smith  lost  no  time  in 
seeking  justice  at  the  hand  of  those  who  took,  its  place.  At  the  Sep- 
tember session,  1784,  the  Trustees  and  Dr.  Smith  presented  their 
petition  to  the  Assembly,  asking  that  so  much  of  the  Act  of  1779, 
which  took  away  their  estates  and  franchises,  should  be  repealed.  The 
Committee  to  whom  the  matter  was  referred  made  a  report  favoring  the 
application,  and  brought  in  a  bill  granting  it.  But  when  the  bill  was 
about  to  pass,  the  minority  left  the  House  (in  modern  phrase,  "bolted"}, 
and  thus  dissolved  the  Assembly.  The  matter  lingered  for  several  years, 
and  until  March  6,  1789,  when  the  Assembly  passed  the  bill,  the  pre- 
amble to  it  stating  as  the  reason  for  its  action  that  the  Act  of  1779  was 
"repugnant  to  justice,  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  this  Common- 
wealth, and  dangerous  in  its  precedent  to  all  incorporated  bodies,  and 
to  the  rights  and  franchises  thereof." 

But  of  all  this  I  shall  speak  at  the  proper  time. 

The  act  of  confiscation,  which  the  Provost  Stille  describes,  has 
been  justly  considered  a  stigma  upon  the  Revolutionary  Legisla- 
ture of  Pennsylvania,  and  still  more  so  upon  the  name — now  much 
better  remembered  than  are  those  of  most  in  the  Legislature — of 
General  Joseph  Reed,  the  President  of  the  State.  Along  with  his 
much-suspected  disloyalty  to  his  Commander-in-Chief,  and  his 
being  charged  by  that  patriotic  man,  General  Cadwalader,  in  a 
printed  pamphlet — of  a  disregard  of  truth,  that  offence  which  ends 
the  character  of  a  gentleman,  and  which,  truly  considering,  was 
the  gist  of  Cadwalader's  accusation — this  his  conduct  in  regard  to 


28  LIFE   A  AD    CORRFSPOSDEACE    OF   THE  \_x779 

th  I  College  of  Philadelphia  conspired  to  bring  about  that  con- 
dit  n  of  feeling  towards  him  described  by  Mr.  Binney  in  his 
"Leaders  of  the  Old  Bar  of  Philadelphia,"*  in  which  tract  the 
author,  speaking  of  President  Reed's  inability  to  do  to  one  of  his 
young  proteges  of  the  bar  any  great  professional  service,  says: 

President  Reed's  political  ardor  during  his  term  of  office,  and  an 
embittered  opposition  to  him  which  had  been  kindled  among  men  of 
business  and  of  importance  in  Philadelphia,  did  not  make  his  return  to 
the  Bar  in  1781  very  easy  or  agreeable;  nor,  as  I  have  heard  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  say,  did  his  mind  return  willingly  to  the  pursuits  of  the  law.  The 
patron,  therefore,  must  have  been  more  willing  than  able  to  assist  him, 
and  in  a  short  time  Mr.  Reed's  health  gave  way,  and  after  visiting 
England,  in  1783,  he  returned  towards  the  close  of  1784,  and,  without 
attempting  to  resume  his  profession,  died  on  the  5th  of  March,  1785. 

While  speaking  thus  of  President  Reed's  malevolence  towards 
those  politically  opposed  to  him,  and  of  the  want  of  sincerity 
which  distinguished  his  character,  I  am  not  insensible  to  his  many 
endearing  domestic  traits,  to  his  considerable  abilities,  and  to  his 
not  less  considerable  accomplishments.  We  may  concede,  too, 
that  both  by  wisdom  in  council  and  conduct  in  action  he  promoted 
essentially  the  Revolution  in  America;  and  his  want  of  success  in 
the  great  struggle  of  life,  after  much  labor,  many  privations,  and 
many  misfortunes,  give,  too,  to  his  memory  a  title  to  our  pathetic 
regard.  But  with  all  this,  and  after  all  the  efforts  that  his  errand- 
son  and  biographer  has  brought  to  redeem  his  reputation,!  I  look 
upon  the  judgment  of  those  who  were  among  the  most  intelligent 
of  his  contemporaries  as  true — that  his  talents  were  more  than 
equal  to  his  integrity;  and  that  in  few  acts  of  his  life  did  this  un- 
enviable preponderance  appear  more  manifest  than  in  the  trans- 
action that  the  Provost  Stille  above  describes.  Of  few  political 
events  of  the  Revolution  did  the  late  Bishop  White  speak  with 
more  emphatic  disapprobation.  It  roused  the  indignation  of  the 
whole  Episcopal  Church,  and  was  followed  at  once  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Episcopal  Academy;  an  institution  still  existing  in 
honor,  after  a  century  of  useful  labors.  The  biographer  of  the 
President — one  of  his  grandsons — while  defending  every  act  that 

*  Page  84. 

•j-  Life  and  Correspondence  of  President  Reed,  by  his  Grandson,  William  B.  Reed, 
2  vols.,  8vo.      Phila.,  1847. 


1780]  REV.   WILLIAM    SMITH,  D.  D.  29 

was  defensible  in  his  ancestor's  public  life,  and  one  which  was 
much  the  reverse,  glosses  over  this,  but  defends  it  not;  indeed, 
while  palliating,  is  compelled  to  condemn  it.*  I  do  not,  of  course, 
forget  that  the  times  in  which  President  Reed  chiefly  figures  were 
times  of  revolution;  that  party-spirit  had  risen  to  a  great  height 
and  exhibited  itself  in  scenes  of  violence;  that  in  the  very  Congress 
of  the  country  there  were,  at  this  same  date,  men  who,  like  Rush, 
Conway,  Gates,  Lovell,  and  others,  seemed  to  hate  Washington 
and  his  friends  as  fully  as  they  did  the  common  enemy.  The  best 
excuse  for  President  Reed  is  found  in  his  own  language  in  the  last 
letter  which  he  ever  wrote,  "  I  was  thrown  into  turbulent  times, 
which  did  not  leave  me  at  liberty  to  speculate,  was  obliged  to  act, 
and  too  often  without  time  to  consider  or  advice  to  guide  me."  f 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 


Dr.  Smith  interests  himself  in  having  General  Washington  made  a  Grand 
Master  over  all  the  Masonic  Lodges  formed  or  to  he  formed  in  the 
United  States. 

We  have  noted  in  our  former  volume,  as  a  feature  of  Dr. 
Smith's  mind,  and  one  tending  to  prove  its  high  order,  that  no 
matter  in  what  troubles  he  might  be  involved  or  in  what  exciting 
scenes  engaged,  his  mental  faculties  and  his  power  to  use  them 
seemed  always  undisturbed.  Even  in  such  trials  as  we  have  de- 
scribed in  the  preceding  chapter,  when  his  very  means  of  living 
were  taken  or  about  to  be  taken  from  him,  he  interests  himself 
vividly  in  the  affairs  of  the  Masonic  Society,  and  in  an  endeavor 
to  have  General  Washington  elected  a  Grand  Master  over  all  the 
Grand  Lodges  formed  or  to  be  formed  in  these  United  States. 
We  give  some  of  his  correspondence  on  this  subject: 

Dr.  Smith  to  Joseph  Webb,  Esq. 

Philadelphia,  August  19th,  1780. 
Sir:    I  do  myself  the  honor  to  address  yon,  by  order  of  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  Ancient   York  Masons,  regularly  constituted   in   the  City  of 

*  Life  and  Correspondence  of  President  Reed,  by  his  Grandson,  William  B.  Reed. 
Vol.  II.,  pp.  169-172. 
f/</.  p.  417- 


30  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/SO 

Philadelphia.  This  Grand  Lodge  has  under  its  jurisdiction  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  the  States  adjacent,  thirty-one  different  regular  Lodges, 
containing  in  the  whole  more  than  one  thousand  brethren.  Enclosed 
you  have  a  printed  abstract  of  some  of  our  late  proceedings,  and  by 
that  of  January  13th  last,  you  will  observe  that  we  have,  so  far  as  de- 
pends on  us,  done  that  honor  which  we  think  due  to  our  illustrious 
Brother,  General  Washington,  viz.,  electing  him  Grand  Master  over  all 
the  Grand  Lodges  formed  or  to  be  formed  in  these  United  States,  not 
doubting  of  the  concurrence  of  all  the  Grand  Lodges  in  America  to 
make  this  election  effectual. 

We  have  been  informed  by  Col.  Palfrey  that  there  is  a  Grand  Lodge 
of  Ancient  York  Masons  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  that  you  are 
Grand  Master  thereof;  as  such,  I  am,  therefore,  to  request  that  you  will 
lay  our  proceedings  before  your  Grand  Lodge,  and  request  their  con- 
current Voice  in  the  appointment  of  General  Washington,  as  set  forth 
in  the  said  Minute  of  January  the  13th,  which,  as  far  as  we  have  been 
able  to  learn,  is  a  Measure  highly  approved  by  all  the  brethren,  and 
that  will  do  honor  to  the  Craft. 

I  am,  etc.,  William  Smith,  Grand  Secretary. 

To  Joseph  Webu. 

Reply  to  the  Preceding  Letter. 

Boston,  September  4th,  1780. 

Sir:  Your  agreeable  favor  of  the  19th  ult.,  I  duly  received  the  31st, 
covering  a  printed  abstract  of  the  proceedings  of  your  Grand  Lodge. 
I  had  received  one  before,  near  three  months,  from  the  Master  of  a 
travelling  Lodge  of  the  Connecticut  line,  but  it  not  coming  officially, 
did  not  lay  it  before  the  Grand  Lodge,  but  the  evening  after  I  received 
yours,  it  being  Grand  Lodge;  I  laid  it  before  them  and  had  some  debate 
on  it,  whereupon  it  was  agreed  to  adjourn  the  Lodge  for  three  weeks,  to 
the  2  2d  instant,  likewise  to  write  to  all  the  Lodges  under  this  jurisdic- 
tion to  attend  themselves  if  convenient  by  their  Master  and  Wardens, 
and  if  not,  to  give  instructions  to  their  proxies  here  concerning  their 
acquiescence  in  the  proposal. 

I  am  well  assured  that  no  one  can  have  any  objections  to  so  illustrious 
a  person  as  General  Washington  to  preside  as  Grand  Master  of  the 
United  States,  but  at  the  same  time  it  will  be  necessary  to  know  from 
you  his  prerogative  as  such  ;  whether  he  is  to  appoint  sub-grand  or 
Provincial  Grand  Masters  of  each  State:  if  so,  I  am  confident  that  the 
Grand  Lodge  of  this  State  will  never  give  up  their  right  of  electing 
their  own  Grand  Masters  and  other  officers  annually.  This  induces  me  to 
write  to  you  now,  before  the  result  of  the  Grand  Lodge  takes  place,  and* 
must  beg  an  answer  by  the  first  opportunity,  that  I  may  be  enabled  to 
lay  the  same  before  them.  I  have  not  heard  of  any  State  except  yours 
and  this  that  have  proceeded  as  yet  since  the  Independence  to  elect 
their  officers,  but  have  been  hoping  that  they  would. 


I /So]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  3 1 

I  do  not  remember  of  more  Grand  Masters  being  appointed  when  we 
were  under  the  British  Government  than  South  Carolina,  North  Caro- 
lina, Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Massachusetts,  but  now  it  may  be 
necessary. 

I  have  granted  a  Charter  of  Dispensation  to  New  Hampshire  till  they 
shall  appoint  a  Grand  Master  of  their  own,  which  suppose  will  not  be 
very  soon,  as  there  is  but  one  Lodge  in  their  State.  Inclosed  I  send 
you  a  list  of  the  officers  of  our  Grand  Lodge,  and  have  the  honor  to  be, 
with  great  respect  and  esteem, 

Your  affectionate  Brother  and  humble  servant, 

Joseph  Webb,  Grand  Master. 

This  communication  was  laid  before  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Penn- 
sylvania, at  a  special  Grand  Communication  on  the  16th  of  October; 
and  a  committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  Smith  and  Colonel  Palfreys  was 
appointed  to  prepare  an  answer,  which  was  as  follows : 

William  Smith,  D.  D.,  to  Joseph  Webb,  Esq. 

Philadelphia,  October  17th,  1780. 

Respected  Sir  and  R.  W.  Bro.  :  Your  kind  and  interesting  letters 
of  the  14th  and  19th,  by  some  delay  in  the  Post-office,  came  both  to 
my  hands  together,  and  that  not  before  the  10th  inst.  They  were  both 
read  and  maturely  considered  at  a  very  full  Grand  Lodge  last  evening, 
and  I  have  it  in  charge  to  thank  you  and  all  the  worthy  members  of  the 
Grand  Lodge  of  Massachusetts  for  the  brotherly  notice  they  were  pleased 
to  take  of  the  proposition  communicated  to  you  from  the  Grand  Lodge 
of  this  State. 

We  are  happy  to  find  that  you  agree  with  us  in  the  necessity  of 
having  one  complete  Masonic  jurisdiction  under  some  one  Grand  Head 
throughout  the  United  States.  It  has  been  a  measure  long  wished  for 
among  the  brethren,  especially  in  the  army,  and  from  them  the  request 
came  originally  to  us,  that  we  might  improve  the  opportunity  which  our 
central  situation  gave  us  of  setting  this  measure  on  foot.  From  these 
considerations,  joined  to  an  earnest  desire  of  advancing  and  doing 
honor  to  Masonry,  and  not  from  any  affectation  of  superiority  or  of 
dictating  to  any  of  our  brethren,  we  put  in  nomination  for  Grand 
Master  over  all  these  States  (and  elected,  so  far  as  depended  upon  us) 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  our  brethren,  whose  character  does  honor 
to  the  whole  Fraternity,  and  who,  we  are  therefore  persuaded,  would  be 
wholly  unexceptionable.  When  our  proposition  and  nomination  should 
be  communicated  to  other  Grand  Lodges,  and  ratified  by  their  concur- 
rence, then,  and  not  before,  it  was  proposed  to  define  the  powers  of 
such  a  Grand  Master  General,  and  to  fix  articles  of  Masonic  union 
among  all  the  Grand  Lodges,  by  means  of  a  convention  of  committees 
from  the  different  Grand  Lodges,  to  be  held  at  such  time  and  place  as 


32  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/""SO 

might  be  agreed  upon.  Such  convention  may  also  have  power  to  notify 
the  Grand  Master  General  of  his  election,  present  him  his  diploma, 
badges  of  office,  and  instal  with  due  form  and  solemnity. 

To  you  who  are  so  well  learned  in  the  Masonic  Art,  and  acquainted 
with  its  history,  it  need  not  be  observed  that  one  Grand  Master  General 
over  man)  Grand  Lodges,  having  each  their  own  Grand  Masters,  is  no 
novel  institution,  even  if  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  Grand 
Lodges  in  America,  now  separated  from  the  jurisdiction  from  whence 
they  first  originated,  did  not  render  it  necessary.  We  have  also  a  very 
recent  magnificent  example  of  the  same  thing  in  Europe  which  may 
serve,  in  respect  to  the  ceremonies  of  installation,  as  a  model  for  us.  I 
will  copy  the  paragraph  as  dated  at  Stockholm,  in  Sweden,  the  21st  of 
March  last,  as  you  may  not  perhaps  have  seen  it. 

'•The  191I1  of  this  month  (March,  17S0)  will  always  be  a  memorable  day  to  the 
Freemasons  established  in  this  kingdom,  for  on  that  day  the  Duke  of  Snndermania 
was  installed  Grand  Master  of  all  the  Lodges  throughout  this  kingdom,  as  well  as  those 
of  St.  Petersburg,  Copenhagen,  Brunswick,  Hamburg,  etc.  The  Lodge  at  St.  Peters- 
burg had  sent  a  Deputy  for  this  purpose,  and  others  had  intrusted  the  diploma  of  the 
instalment  to  Baron  Leyonhrefrud,  who  had  been  last  year  to  Copenhagen  and  in 
Germany  on  this  negotiation.  This  instalment  was  attended  with  great  pomp.  The 
assembly  was  composed  of  more  than  four  hundred  members,  and  was  honored  with 
the  presence  of  the  king,  who  was  pleased  to  grant  a  charter  to  the  Lodge,  taking  it 
under  his  royal  protection,  at  the  same  time  investing  the  new  Grand  Master  with  an 
ermined  cloak ;  after  which  he  was  placed  upon  a  throne,  clothed  with  the  marks 
of  his  new  dignity,  and  there  received  ihe  compliments  of  all  the  members,  who 
according  to  their  rank  were  admitted  to  kiss  the  hand,  sceptre,  or  cloak  of  the  new 
Grand  Master,  and  had  delivered  to  them  a  silver  medal,  struck  to  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  this  solemnity,  which  passed  in  Exchange  Hall.  It  is  said  the  king  will 
grant  revenues  for  the  Commanderies,  and  that  this  Royal  Lodge  will  receive  of  each 
an  annual  tribute.  This  solemnity  hath  raised  the  Order  of  Freemasons  from  a  kind 
of  oblivion  into  which  they  were  sunk.'' 

What  the  particular  authorities  of  the  Grand  Master  of  these  United 
States  were  to  be,  we  had  not  taken  upon  us  to  describe,  but  (as  before 
hinted)  had  left  them  to  be  settled  by  a  convention  of  Grand  Lodges  or 
their  deputies.  But  this  is  certain,  that  we  never  intended  the  different 
Provincial  or  State  Grand  Masters  should  be  deprived  of  the  election 
of  their  own  Grand  Officers,  or  of  any  of  their  just  Masonic  rights 
and  authorities  over  the  different  Lodges  within  the  bounds  of  their 
jurisdiction. 

But  where  new  Lodges  are  to  be  erected  beyond  the  bounds  of  any 
legal  Grand  Lodges  now  existing,  such  Lodges  are  to  have  their  war- 
rants from  the  Grand  Master  General,  and  when  such  Lodges  become  a 
number  sufficient  to  be  formed  into  one  Grand  Lodge,  the  bounds  of 
such  Grand  Lodge  are  to  be  described,  and  the  warrant  to  be  granted 
by  the  Grand  Master  aforesaid,  who  may  also  call  and  preside  in  a 
convention  of  Grand  Lodges  when  any  matter  of  great  and  general 


I780]  REV.    WILL  LAM  S  ML  TIL,  D.  D.  33 

importance  to  the  whole  United  Fraternity  of  these  States  may  require 
it.  What  other  powers  may  be  given  to  the  Grand  Master  General, 
and  how  such  powers  are  to  be  drawn  up  and  expressed,  will  be  the 
business  of  the  convention  proposed. 

For  want  of  some  general  Masonic  authority  over  all  these  States,  the 
Grand  Lodge  of  Pennsylvania,  ex  necessitate,  have  granted  warrants 
beyond  its  bounds  to  the  Delaware  and  Maryland  States,  and  you  have 
found  it  expedient  to  do  the  same  in  New  Hampshire,  but  we  know  that 
necessity  alone  can  be  a  plea  for  this. 

By  what  has  been  said  above,  you  will  see  that  our  idea  is  to  have  a 
Grand  Master  General  overall  the  United  States,  and  each  Lodge  under 
him  to  preserve  its  own  rights,  jurisdiction,  etc.,  under  him  as  formerly 
under  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Great  Britain,  from  whence  the  Grand 
Lodges  in  America  had  their  warrants,  and  to  have  this  new  Masonic 
constitution  and  the  powers  of  the  Grand  Master  General  fixed  by  a 
convention  of  committees  aforesaid. 

Others  we  are  told  have  proposed  that  there  be  one  Grand  Master 
over  all  these  States,  and  that  the  other  Masters  of  Grand  Lodges, 
whether  nominated  by  him  or  chosen  by  their  own  Grand  Lodges, 
should  be  considered  as  his  deputies.  But  we  have  the  same  objections 
to  this  that  you  have,  and  never  had  any  idea  of  establishing  such  a 
plan  as  hath  been  suggested  before. 

This  letter  is  now  swelled  to  a  great  length.  We  have  therefore  only 
to  submit  two  things  to  your  deliberation  : 

First.  Either  whether  it  be  best  to  make  your  election  of  a  Grand 
Master  General  immediately,  and  then  propose  to  us  a  time  and  place 
where  a  committee  from  your  body  could  meet  a  committee  from  ours 
to  fix  his  powers  and  proceed  to  instalment ;  or, 

Second.  Whether  you  will  first  appoint  such  a  place  of  meeting  and 
the  powers  of  the  proposed  Grand  Master,  and  then  return  home  and 
proceed  to  the  election,  and  afterwards  meet  anew  for  instalment.  This 
last  mode  would  seem  to  require  too  much  time,  and  would  not  be  so 
agreeable  to  our  worthy  brethren  of  the  army,  who  are  anxious  to  have 
this  matter  completed. 

As  you  will  probably  choose  the  first  mode,  could  not  the  place  of 
our  meeting  be  at  or  near  the  headquarters  of  the  arm)',  at  or  soon  after 
St.  John's  day  next?  At  any  rate,  you  will  not  fix  a  place  far  north- 
ward on  account  of  some  brethren  from  Virginia  who  will  attend,  for 
we  propose  to  advertise  the  business  and  the  time  and  place  of  meeting 
in  the  public  papers,  that  any  regular  Grand  Lodges  which  we  may  not 
have  heard  of  may  have  an  opportunity  of  sending  representatives. 

Your  answer  as  soon  as  possible  is  requested  under  cover  to  Peter 
Baynton,  Esq.,  Postmaster  in  Philadelphia. 

I  am,  etc.,  William  Smith,  Grand  Secretary. 

To  Joseph  'Webb,  Esq.,  Grand  Master  of  Massachusetts. 
3 


34  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1780 

This  effort  of  Dr.  Smith's  to  establish  a  General  American  Head 
over  all  the  Lodges  in  this  country  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
one  made  in  Pennsylvania ;  and  when  the  project  has  been  advo- 
cated by  other  Grand  Bodies,  the  voice  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Pennsylvania  has  been  invariably  against  it.  From  this  action,  in 
1780,  arose,  undoubtedly,  the  widespread  appellation  of  the  title 
of  General  Grand  Master  to  Washington — an  historical  error  which 
has  not  yet  been  eradicated  from  the  minds  of  all  Masons. 


CHAPTER    XL. 


Dr.  Smith  goes  to  Chestertown,  Kent  County,  Maryland,  and  establishes 
his  School,  which  finally  became  Washington  College — Takes  charge 
of  a  Parish  there — Preaches  a  Thanksgiving  Sermon  for  the  Estab- 
lishment of  Peace  and  Independence,  July  4TH,  1780 — Assembles  the 
Church  in  Convention,  November  9TH,  1780 — The  First  Church  Con- 
vention in  Maryland — Address  of  the  Parishes  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  State — The  Name  "Protestant  Episcopal  Church" 
first  given  to  the  Church  of  England  at  this  Convention. 

As  we  have  seen  by  the  concluding  part  of  our  extract  from  the 
Provost  Stille's  narrative  of  the  Legislative  attack  on  the  College, 
the  year  1780  found  Dr.  Smith  in  Philadelphia  without  any  situa- 
tion, with  a  young  family  depending  upon  his  exertions  for  their 
daily  bread,  and  with  the  opposition  of  the  Presbyterian  and 
"Constitutionalist"  parties  to  contend  with.  The  labors  of  twenty- 
six  years  of  his  life  were  laid  in  the  dust,  together  with  his  official 
honors.  But  as  the  Provost  whom  we  have  just  named  truly  says, 
he  was  not  a  man  to  be  dismayed ;  he  looked  realities  in  the  face ; 
and  at  once  left  everything,  and  with  his  wife  and  children  moved 
to  Chestertown,  Kent  county,  Maryland,  to  found  and  set  in  ope- 
ration a  village  school  or  academy.  He  was  here  offered  charge 
of  the  Parish,  and  was  to  receive  as  his  compensation  no  money — 
but  600  bushels  of  wheat.  Such,  too,  were  the  discouraging  pros- 
pects of  reward  that  it  took  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  persons 
to  agree  to  contribute  before  this  amount  of  wheat  could  be  prom- 
ised. His  first  sermon  was  a  Thanksgiving  Sermon  for  the 
Establishment  of  Peace  and  Independence  in  America.  It  was 
preached  in  Chestertown  Church,  July  4th,  1780,  the  text  being 
from  Isaiah  lii.  10. 


1780]  HE!'.    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  35 

So  vigorously  did  Dr.  Smith  set  himself  to  work  at  his  new 
enterprise  that  ere  the  close  of  the  year  he  had  also  charge  of  the 
Kent  County  School,  combining  it  with  his  own  private  class — a 
combination  out  of  which  grew  Washington  College,  two  years 
afterwards. 

Immediately  upon  his  going  to  Maryland  he  took  a  marked 
position  and  influence  in  regard  to  the  whole  Episcopal  Church  in 
that  State.  From  Dr.  Ethan  Allen's  invaluable  history  of  the 
Church,  we  learn  that  before  the  year  1776,  the  Parishes  numbered 
forty-four,  each  having  its  rector,  and  many  of  these  his  curate 
or  assistant,  of  which  there  were  ten  or  more.  But  before  the 
4th  of  July  ensuing  four  of  the  clergy  had  abandoned  their  Par- 
ishes; it  being  no  longer  safe  for  them  to  remain,  and  had  gone  to 
England. 

On  the  establishment  of  the  State  government  in  that  year  the 
Bill  of  Rights  deprived  the  clergy  of  their  legal  support,  which 
they  had  enjoyed  for  three  generations,  and  left  them  without  it. 
Not  long  after,  followed  an  oath  required  of  them,  which,  if  they 
had  taken  it,  would  have  been,  says  Dr.  Allen,  a  violation  of  their 
ordination  vows.  Under  these  restrictions  nine  of  them  gave  up 
their  cures  and  went  to  England.  Six  went  to  Virginia;  one  (Dr. 
John  Andrews)  to  Pennsylvania;  one  to  Delaware;  one  to  Elkton; 
one  to  his  estate  in  Charles  county;  one  to  his  seat  in  Prince 
George's;  two  to  their  estates  elsewhere,  and  two  or  three  to 
teaching.  In  the  meanwhile  about  seven  had  died,  and  three 
new  Parishes  had  come  into  existence  under  the  Act  of  1770. 

In  1779  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland  had  passed  an  Act 
for  electing  vestries  in  the  existing  Parishes,  and,  when  elected, 
giving  to  such  vestries,  in  fee  simple,  the  glebes,  places  of  worship 
and  other  church  property,  and  the  appointment  of  ministers  for 
their  respective  Parishes,  but  making  no  provision  for  their  sup- 
port, saving  what  might  be  voluntary.  This  prompted  the  move- 
ment of  the  succeeding  Conventions. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  Church  in  Maryland  when  Dr. 
Smith  went  into  that  State. 

The  Parishes,  however,  were  still  numerous,  and  I  suppose  had 
never  been  legally  destroyed:  and  in  1780  there  were  at  least  six 
clergymen,  including  Dr.  Smith,  in  the  State.  Dr.  Smith  set 
himself  at  work  immediately  to  assemble  the  churchmen  of  Mary- 


36  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/8o 

land  in  convention  and  to  raise  up  the  Church  from  the  ruin  into 
which  the  Revolutionary  war  had  laid  it. 

A  Convention — the  first,  we  may  perhaps  say,  in  the  State  of 
Maryland — was  accordingly  assembled  at  Chestertown,  Kent 
county,  November  9th,  1780. 

There  were  present : 
Rev.  Samuel  Keene,  Rector  of  St.  Luke's,  Queen  Anne's  county. 
Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  Chester  Parish,  Kent  county. 
Rev.  James  Jones  Wilmer,  Rector  of  Shrewsbury  Parish,  Kent  county. 
Col.  Richard  Lloyd,  Vestryman  of  St.  Paul's  Parish,  Kent  county. 
Mr.  James  Dunn,  "  "  "  "         " 

Mr.  John  Page,  "  "  " 

Mr.  Richard  Miller, 

Mr.  Simon  Wickes,  "  "  "  "         " 

Dr.  John  Scott,  Vestryman  of  Chester  Parish,  Kent  county. 
Mr.  John  Bolton,       "  "  "  " 

Mr.  J.  W.  Tilden,     " 
Mr.  St.  Leger  Everett,  " 

Mr.  James  Wroth,      " 
Mr.  John  Kennard,  Church  Warden  of  Chester  Parish,  Kent  county. 
Mr.  Sturgess, 

Mr.  Christopher  Hall,  Vestryman  of  Shrewsbury,  S.  Sassafras,  Kent. 
Mr.  George  Moffett, 
Mr.  William  Keating,  "  "  " 

Mr.  C ,  Church  Warden,  "  "  " 

Mr.  John  Brown,  Vestryman  of  St.  Luke's,  Queen  Anne's  county. 

Mr.  Downs,  "  "  "         " 

Dr.  William  Bordly. 

Dr.  Van  Dyke. 

Col.  Isaac  Perkins. 

Mr.  Charles  Groom. 

Mr.  William  Keene. 

Mr.  James  Hackett. 

Dr.  Smith  was  appointed  President  of  this  Convention. 

A  petition  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland  for  the  support 
of  public  religion  was  read  and  approved,  and  ordered  to  ^e  sent 
to  each  vestry  in  the  State ;  and  if  by  them  approved,  after  obtain- 
ing signatures  in  their  respective  Parishes,  it  was  carried  up  to  the 
Legislature.  The  petition,  which  I  presume  was  from  the  pen  of 
Dr.  Smith,  was  as  follows: 


1 7S0]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  37 

To  the  Honorable  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Maryland  : 
The  petition  of  the  Vestry  and   Church  Wardens  of  the   Parish  of 

, county,  humbly  sheweth  that  it  is  manifest  from  reason 

as  well  as  the  clear  light  of  revelation,  that  the  worship  of  the  Almighty 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe  is  the  indispensable  duty  of  his 
dependent  creatures,  and  the  surest  means  of  preserving  their  temporal 
as  well  as  eternal  happiness,  that  where  religion  is  left  unsupported, 
neither  laws  nor  government  can  be  duly  administered  ;  and  as  the  ex- 
perience of  ages  has  shown  the  necessity  of  providing  for  supporting  the 
officers  and  ministers  of  government  in  all  civil  societies,  so  the  like 
experience  shows  the  necessity  of  providing  a  support  for  the  ordinances 
and  ministers  of  religion,  because  if  either  of  them  were  left  wholly  de- 
pendent on  the  benevolence  of  individuals,  such  is  the  frailty  of  human 
nature  and  the  averseness  of  many  to  their  best  interests,  that  the  sordid 
and  the  selfish,  the  licentious  and  profane  would  avail  themselves  of 
such  liberty  to  shrink  from  their  share  of  labor  and  expense,  and  thereby 
render  that  which  would  be  easy  where  borne  by  all,  an  intolerable  bur- 
den to  the  few  whose  conscience  and  principles  of  justice  would  not 
permit  them  in  this  or  in  any  other  case  to  swerve  from  their  duties, 
civil  or  religious. 

That  our  pious  ancestors,  the  worthy  and  respectable  founders  of  this 
State,  convinced  of  the  foregoing  truths,  and  declaring  that  "in  every 
well-grounded  commonwealth  matters  concerning  religion  ought  in  the 
first  place  to  be  taken  into  consideration,  countenanced  and  encouraged 
as  being  not  only  most  acceptable  to  God,  but  the  best  way  and  means 
of  obtaining  his  mercy  and  a  blessing  upon  a  people  and  country" 
(having  the  promises  of  this  life  and  of  the  life  to  come),  did  frame  and 
enact  sundry  laws  for  erecting  churches  and  places  of  public  worship,  the 
maintenance  of  an  orthodox  clergy,  the  support  and  advancement  of  reli- 
gion, and  the  orderly  administration  of  its  divine  and  saving  ordinances. 
That  the  delegates  of  this  State  at  the  great  era  of  our  independence 
in  free  and  full  convention  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a 
new  constitution  and  form  of  government  upon  the  authority  of  the 
people,  appearing  in  their  wisdom  to  have  considered  some  parts  of  the 
said  laws  as  inconsistent  with  that  religious  liberty  and  equality  of  as- 
sessment, which  they  intended  of  their  future  government,  did  by  the 
33d  section  of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  abrogate  all  such  laws  thereto- 
fore passed,  as  enabled  any  Courts  on  the  application  of  Vestrymen  and 
Church  Wardens  to  make  assessments  or  levies  for  the  support  of  the 
religious  establishments,  but  not  with  a  view  of  being  less  attentive  than 
their  pious  ancestors  had  been  to  the  interests  of  religion,  learning  and 
good  morals.  On  the  contrary,  by  the  very  same  section,  an  express 
recommendation  and  authority  are  given  to  future  legislatures,  "at  their 
discretion  to  lay  a  general  and  equal  tax  for  the  support  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion"  agreeably  to  the  said  declaration. 


38  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/80 

That  your  petitioners  are  sensible  of  the  many  urgent  civil  concerns 
in  which  the  honorable  and  worthy  Legislatures  of  this  State  have  been 
engaged  since  the  great  and  trying  period,  and  how  much  wisdom  and 
deliberation  are  at  all  times  necessary  in  framing  equal  laws  for  the  sup- 
port of  religion  and  learning,  and  more  especially  amidst  the  horrors 
and  confusion  of  an  expensive  and  unrelenting  war.  But  they  are 
sensible  at  the  same  time  (and  persuaded  the  Honorable  Assembly  are 
equally  sensible)  that  where  religion  is  left  to  mourn  and  droop  her 
head  while  her  sacred  ordinances  are  unsupported,  and  vice  and  im- 
morality gain  ground,  even  war  itself  will  be  but  feebly  carried  on  ; 
patriotism  will  lose  its  animating  principle ;  corruption  will  win  its  way 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  places ;  distress  will  soon  pervade  every 
public  measure ;  our  graveyards,  the  monuments  of  the  piety  of  our 
ancestors,  running  into  ruin,  will  become  the  reproach  of  their  pos- 
terity. Nay,  more,  the  great  and  glorious  fabric  of  public  happiness, 
which  we  are  striving  to  build  up  and  cement  with  an  immensity  of 
blood  and  treasure,  might  be  in  danger  of  tumbling  into  the  dust  as 
wanting  the  stronger  cement  of  virtue  and  religion,  or  perhaps  would 
fall  an  easy  prey  to  some  haughty  invader. 

Deeply  impressed  with  these  momentous  considerations,  and  con- 
ceiving ourselves  fully  warranted  by  our  constituents  in  this  applica- 
tion to  your  honorable  body,  having  advertised  our  design  without  any 
objection  yet  notified  to  us,  your  petitioners  therefore  most  earnestly 
and  humbly  pray. 

That  an  act  may  be  passed  agreeably  to  the  aforesaid  section  of  the 
Declaration  of  Rights,  for  the  support  of  public  religion  by  an  equal 
assessment  and  laws,  and  also  to  enable  the  vestry  and  church  wardens 
of  this  parish,  by  rates  on  the  pews  from  time  to  time,  or  otherwise, 
as  your  wisdom  shall  think  fit,  to  repair  and  uphold  the  church  and 
chapel  and  the  churchyard  and  burying-ground  of  the  same.  All  which 
your  petitioners  conceive  may  be  done  not  only  for  this  parish,  but  at 
the  same  time,  if  thought  best,  for  any  other  parish  within  this  State 
(which  it  is  believed  earnestly  desires  the  same),  by  a  single  law  in  a 
manner  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  liberty  and  wishes  of  every  denomi- 
nation of  men,  which  would  be  esteemed  good  Christians  and  faithful 
citizens  of  the  State. 

And  your  petitioners,  as  bound,  shall  ever  pray,  etc. 

On  motion,  it  was  resolved  that  the  church  formerly  known  in 
the  province  as  the  Church  of  England,  should  now  be  called  "the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church." 

Dr.  Smith  has  had  the  credit  of  having  given  this  name  to  the 
church ;  but  if  a  statement  made  by  the  Rev.  James  Jones  Wilmer  be 
correct,  it  is  apparently  without  sufficient  foundation.     In  a  letter 


I/Si]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  39 

dated  May  6,  1810,  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilmer  to  Bishop  Claggett, 
he  writes  :  "  I  am  one  of  the  three  who  first  organized  the  Episcopal 
Church  during  the  Revolution,  and  am  consequently  one  of  the 
primary  aids  of  its  consolidation  throughout  the  United  States. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Keene  and  myself  held  the  first  conven- 
tion at  Chestertown,  and  I  acted  as  secretary."  He  also  states  in 
this  letter  that  "he  moved  that  the  Church  of  England  as  hereto- 
fore so  known  in  the  province  be  now  called  The  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  it  was  so  adopted." — Sec  Md.  Archives. 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

Dr.  Smith  Preaches  a  New  Year's  Sermon  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadel- 
phia— Proposes  General  Washington  as  a  Member  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society — General  Washington's  Letter  of  Acceptance 
to  Dr.  Smith — Dr.  Smith  to  Cesar  Rodney — Dr.  Smith  Preaches  a 
Funeral  Sermon  at  the  Burial  of  Mrs.  Coudon — Preaches,  in  May, 
17S1,  a  Fast  Sermon  in  Chestertown,  and  in  December  of  the  same 
Year  a  Thanksgiving  Sermon — Extracts  from  these  Two  Last — 
Death  of  John  Wemyss — Extract  from  the  Minutes  of  the  Grand 
Lodge — The  Aiiiman  Rezon. 

Notwithstanding  his  new  enterprises  in  Maryland,  Dr.  Smith 
maintained,  in  continuing  strength,  his  old  attachments  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  his  diary  tells  us  that  on  the  1st  of  January,  1781,  he 
was  in  that  city,  by  appointment,  to  preach  a  New  Year's  sermon 
in  St.  Peter's  Church,  the  church  of  his  consecration,  as  we  may 
call  it,  and  even  beyond  Christ  Church  of  his  special  love.  Plis 
text  seems  to  have  had  a  special  suggestion  from  his  own  lately 
eventful  history.  It  was  in  those  striking  verses  in  St.  James' 
Epistle  General : 

"Go  to  now,  ye  that  say  to-day  or  to-morrow  we  will  go  into  such  a 
city,  and  continue  there  a  year  and  buy  and  get  gain  ;  whereas,  ye 
know  not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow.  For  what  is  your  life?  it  is 
even  a  vapor,  which  appeareth  for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth 
away.  For  that  ye  ought  to  say,  if  the  Lord  will,  we  shall  live  and  do 
this  or  that."* 

*  Chapter  IV.,  verses  13,  14,  15. 


4°  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \}7^ 

While  in  Philadelphia,  he  attended  a  meeting  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  on  January  19th,  and  proposed  General 
George  Washington  as  a  member;  the  General  was  elected,  and 
Dr.  Smith  was  appointed  to  notify  to  him  the  fact.  The  General 
soon  afterwards  thus  politely  acknowledges  the  honor : 

General  Washington  to  Dr.  Smith. 

Head-Quarters,  Passaic  Falls.* 
Sir:    I  am  particularly  indebted  to  you  for  the  obliging  manner  in 
which  you  have  executed   the  trust  reposed   in   you  by  the  American 
Philosophical  Society.     An  excuse  for  the  little  delay  that  attended  it 
could  have  only  found  a  motive  in  your  politeness. 

All  the  circumstances  of  the  Election  are  too  nattering  not  to  en- 
hance the  honor  I  feel  in  being  distinguished  by  the  fellowship  of  a 
Society  so  eminently  respectable. 

I  warmly  unite  with    you   in  the  wish  that    the  happy  period  may 
speedily  arrive  which  will  enable  all  the  members  to  devote  themselves 
to  advancing  the  objects  of  this  most  useful  institution. 
I  am,  Sir,  with  very  great  respect, 

Yr  Most  Obedient  Humble  Servant, 

Geo.  Washington: 
To  Revd.  William  Smith. 

Returning  in  a  short  time  to  Maryland,  wc  find  Dr.  Smith 
engaged  in  his  work  of  corresponding,  preaching  and  teaching. 

Dr.  Smith  to  C&sar  Rodney,  President  of  the  State  of  Delaware. 

CHESTERTOWN,  Maryland,  Feb.  8th,  1781. 

Sir:  When  I  had  last  the  honour  to  wait  on  your  Excellency  at  New 
Castle,  I  informed  you  that  I  had  left  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Mc- 
William,  Jr.,  the  Draft  of  a  Bill  for  the  Wilmington  Lottery.  As 
Mr.  Read,  on  whom  we  chiefly  depend  for  getting  this  Bill  forwarded, 
may  be  engaged  in  the  House  when  the  Post  passes  through  New  Castle, 
and  not  so  easily  found  as  your  Excellency,  I  have  taken  the  Liberty  to 
request  that  if  it  be  not  too  much  trouble  for  yourself  to  inform  me  the 
State  and  Progress  of  the  Bill  by  return  of  this  Post.  You  will  be 
pleased  to  desire  or  direct  Mr.  Booth  to  do  me  that  favour. 

I  thank  your  Excellency  for  that  gentlemanlike,  liberal  and  candid 
regard  which  I  am  well  informed  you  have  been  pleased  to  pay  to  my 
good  name,  when  called  in  question  by  prejudiced  or  narrow-minded 


*  This  letter,  which  is  in  the  collection  of  Colonel  Frank  Etting,  is  not  dated  ;  but, 
as  the  election  was  on  the  19th  of  January,  1781,  the  letter  must  have  been  written 
soon  afterward. 


I78  i]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  41 

men..  I  wish  it  may  ever  fall  in  my  way  to  do  any  part  of  that  justice 
to  your  public  character  which  it  so  eminently  merits.  This  little  quiet 
town  produces  no  news. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be 

Your  Excellency's  Most  Obedient  Servant, 

William  Smith. 
To  His  Excellency  Cesar  Rodney,  Esq.,  Xlw  Castle. 

On  February  9th  he  preached  a  funeral  sermon  at  Chestertown, 
Maryland,  on  the  burial  of  Mrs.  Rachel  Coudon,  wife  of  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Coudon,  a  clergyman  of  that  diocese.* 

A  second  convention  of  the  church  was  held  April  5th,  1781, 
at  Chestertown.  We  have  no  journal  of  it.  It  was  probably  but 
a  small  assemblage,  and  its  proceedings  were  perhaps  but  few. 
Its  object  apparently  was  to  petition  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State  to  pass  an  Act  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Gospel  agreeably 
to  the  new  Constitution  of  Government. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  178 1  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  recommended  Thursday,  May  23d,  as  a  day  of  general 
Fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer ;  and  on  the  day  appointed  Dr. 
Smith  preached  a  Fast  sermon  accordingly  in  Chester  chapel. 
The  text  was  from — 

Isaiah  lviii.  3:  "  Wherefore  have  we  Fasted,  say  they,  and  thou  seest 
not?  Wherefore  have  we  afflicted  our  soul,  and  thou  takest  no 
knowledge  !  ' ' 

*  joseph  Coition,  A.  M.,  a  native  of  Maryland,  brought  up  in  the  Church — ordained 
17S1  by  Bishop  White,  and  became  Rector  of  North  Elk,  Cecil,  where  he  had  been 
Lay  Reader,  and  in  charge  of  the  Academy;  in  17S9  he  added  Augustine  Parish, 
Cecil.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Convention  and  of  the  Standing  Committee. 
He  died  in  1792,  ret.  51. — Allen's  History. 

The  Rev.  Ethan  Allen,  D.  D.,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  preceding  sketch  and 
for  those  various  notices  of  the  Maryland  Clergy  which  I  have  used  in  this  work,  as 
well  as  for  other  most  valuable  information  in  every  part  of  what  relates  to  the  Church  in 
Maryland,  is  a  native  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  brought  up  a  Congregationalist,  but, 
coming  into  the  Church,  was  ordained  in  1S19  by  Bishop  Kemp,  and  became  Rector 
of  St.  John's  Parish,  Prince  George  county,  Maryland,  and  in  1823  of  Washington 
Parish,  Washington  City.  In  1830  he  removed  to  Ohio,  and  in  1S47  returned  to 
Maryiand  and  became  Rector  of  St.  John's,  in  the  valley — now  Western  Run  Parish — 
Baltimore  county,  and  in  1S55  of  St.  Thomas  Homestead,  in  the  same  county.  In 
1854  he  was  a  member  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Court.  In  1855  he  preached  the  Conven- 
tion sermon,  and  was  put  into  the  Standing  Committee  and  became  the  Agent  for 
Diocesan  Missions.  He  was  an  editor  of  the  "  Theological  Repertory,"  and  has  pub- 
lished seven  sermons  and  addresses,  "A  History  of  St.  Ann's  Parish,"  "  The  Early 
History  of  Maryland,"  and  some  sixteen  Biographical  Memoirs.  He  enjoys  deservedly 
the  reputation  of  a  learned  and  most  amiable  man. 


42  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [i/Sl 

We  give  some  extracts  from  the  discourse : 

Frequent  have  heen  the  days  of  humiliation  and  the  fasts  which  our 
Rulers,  in  their  Piety,  have  recommended  during  a  few  years  past,  and 
once  at  least  every  year  (if  not  oftener)  hath  beheld  the  inhabitants  of 
these  States,  in  consequence  of  such  recommendation,  assembled  and 
prostrated,  before  the  Lord,  in  Prayer  and  Fasting:  and  now  at  length, 
through  the  impatience  of  our  tempers,  the  deceitfulness  of  our  hearts, 
and  the  weakness  of  our  faith,  we  are  ready,  perhaps,  to  take  up  the 
complaint  of  the  Jews,  and  in  the  language  of  despair,  instead  of  the 
voice  of  Godly  sorrow  and  repentance,  to  argue  the  matter  with  our 
great  Creator,  and  to  question  his  goodness  and  justice  in  the  words  of 
my  text. 

These  questions  in  this  text  are  awful  questions,  and  which  He  only 
to  whom  they  are  addressed  can  answer.  And  therefore,  since,  by 
his  holy  prophet,  he  has  vouchsafed  an  answer  to  these  and  such  like 
questions,  to  the  desponding  Jews,  in  circumstances  not  unlike  to  our 
own  ;  we  cannot  better  employ  our  time,  on  this  solemn  occasion,  than 
by  considering — 

First — The  answer  given  by  the  prophet  to  these  questions  of  the 
Jews,  and  the  reasons  of  the  Almighty  for  the  frequent  rejecting  of  their 
fasts. 

Secondly — How  far  our  fasts  may  be  chargeable  with  the  like  defects 
in  the  sight  of  a  just  and  all-seeing  God?  And  how,  through  His 
grace,  our  Prayers  and  Fastings,  our  Praises  and  Thanksgivings,  may  be 
rendered  more  acceptable  to  Him  ? 

Although  we  have  the  Gospel  in  our  hand,  as  the  fulness  of  Divine 
Light  and  Knowledge,  to  which  no  addition  can  be  made  in  our  mortal 
state ;  yet  we  are  to  adore  that  Providence  which  has  given  us  the  Old 
Testament  also,  wherein  is  contained  an  account  of  the  dealings  of  the 
Almighty,  in  ancient  times,  with  his  own  chosen  people;  and  from 
whence  les>:nns  are  to  be  derived,  that  with  profit  may  be  applied  to  the 
instruction  of  mankind  in  all  succeeding  ages. 

Let  us  then  consider  the  situation  of  the  Jews,  after  they  had  been 
first  spoiled  by  the  Assyrians,  and  afterwards  by  the  Babylonians,  as  set 
forth  in  the  forty-second  chapter  of  this  prophecy,  now  claiming  at- 
tention.    And  truly  melancholy  and  miserable  it  was. 

"This  people  (saith  the  prophet)  is  robbed  and  spoiled.  They  are 
all  of  them  snared  in  holes,  and  hid  in  prison-houses  ;  They  are  for  a 
prey,  and  none  delivereth;  for  a  spoil,  and  none,  saith,  restore.  Who 
among  you  will  give  ear  to  this?  Who  will  hearken  and  hear?  Who 
is  there  that,  by  the  present  judgments,  will  take  warning,  and  strive  to 
avert  the  like  judgments  in  the  time  to  come." 

Think  not  that  these  judgments  spring  up  from  the  dust,  or  have 
come  upon  you  without  a  cause.      "  For  who  was  it  that  gave  Jacob  for 


I/8l]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  43 

a  spoil  and  Israel  to  the  robbers?  Did  not  the  Lord?  He  against 
whom  we  have  sinned?"  And  for  what  reason  did  the  Lord  thus 
deliver  his  people  to  be  robbed  and  spoiled  by  their  enemies?  The 
prophet  answers  plainly — "  Because  they  would  not  walk  in  his  ways, 
nor  be  obedient  unto  his  Laws — Therefore  he  hath  poured  upon  them 
the  fury  of  His  anger,  and  the  strength  of  battle — and  it  hath  set  him 
on  fire  round  about,  yet  he  knew  it  not  " — That  is,  all  the  horrors  and 
fury  of  war,  and  their  very  city  and  temple  burnt  to  ashes  by  the 
Chaldean  army,  did  not  lead  them  to  consider  and  turn  again  unto  the 
Lord  whom  they  had  offended.  They  still  continued  in  their  sins, 
despised  the  Law  of  God,  nor  from  all  His  visitations  would  they  learn 
the  righteousness. 

'Tis  true  that  so  far  as  outward  professions  would  go,  so  far  as  having 
the  name  of  religion  in  their  mouths,  and  claiming  the  privileges  prom- 
ised and  covenanted  by  God  to  their  Fathers  for  keeping  the  Law — so 
far  as  outward  professions  and  claims  of  peculiar  favour  would  go,  they 
continued  zealous  before  God — Nay,  so  far  as  days  of  solemn  Fasting 
and  Humiliation,  on  special  visitations  and  calamities,  might  be  thought 
a  duty,  they  were  not  backward  in  the  appointment  and  observation  of 
them.  But  what  sort  of  Fasts  they  were,  we  shall  soon  learn  from  the 
Sermon  of  the  prophet,  in  the  chapter  from  which  my  text  is  taken. 

The  first  verse  is  an  awful  command  to  him  to  go  among  the  people 
on  the  solemn  Fast-day;  and  to  warn  them  of  their  sins — "  Cry  aloud 
and  spare  not ;  lift  up  thy  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  shew  my  people 
their  transgressions,  and  the  House  of  Jacob  their  sin."  That  is  to  say 
— In  the  boldest  and  most  public  manner,  with  all  the  freedom  becom- 
ing a  prophet  and  messenger  of  God,  concealing  nothing  through  Fear 
or  Love,  declare  to  the  people  their  many  transgressions,  and  especially 
their  open  hypocrisy,  and  "the  iniquities  of  their  Holy  things." 

For  to  all  their  offences  they  add  this  provoking  aggravation,  namely 
— high  professions  and  shew  of  religion — "They  seek  me  daily,"  or 
draw  nigh  to  me  in  all  outward  ordinances,  as  a  nation  that  would  be 
thought  to  delight  in  knowing  my  ways  and  performing  righteousness; 
and  they  ask  of  me  the  ordinances  of  justice,  the  rewards  promised  to 
holiness  ;  and,  wondering  that  they  do  not  receive  an  immediate  answer 
to  their  Prayers  and  Fastings,  they  cry  out  in  the  midst  of  every 
adversity — 

"Wherefore  have  we  Fasted,  and  thou  seest  not?  Wherefore  have 
we  afflicted  our  soul,  and  thou  takest  no  knowledge?  " 

Attend,  therefore,  Brethren,  to  the  Prophet's  answer  to  these  most 
important  questions!  Astonished  at  their  blindness  to  their  own  faults, 
and  their  expecting  an  immediate  answer  of  favour  from  God,  in  all 
their  religious  approaches  to  Him;  the  Prophet  reminds  them  that  they 
are  taught  from  their  own  scriptures,  "that  the  sacrifices  of  the  wicked 
are  an  abomination  in  God's  sight;   and  that   he  will  not  hear  sinners" 


44  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Ql/8l 

(though  they  call  to  Him  in  distress)  without  Repentance  and  Amend- 
ment of  life. 

"Behold,  says  the  prophet,  in  the  day  of  your  Fast,  you  find  pleas- 
ure and  exact  all  your  labours  " — -Amidst  all  your  pretended  Humilia- 
tions before  me,  you  still  find  a  way  of  gratifying  your  own  Passions 
and  Covetousness,  grieving  and  oppressing  the  Poor,  and  exacting 
every  labour  of  those  over  whom  you  rule — Nay,  instead  of  fasting  from 
the  Love  and  Fear  of  God — "  Behold  ye  fast  for  strife  and  debate,  and 
to  smite  with  the  fist  of  wickedness."  Your  Fasts  have  only  an  out- 
ward appearance  of  devotion,  while  their  true  design  is  to  promote  some 
selfish  or  party  view,  or  to  sanctify  in  the  sight  of  men  some  enormous 
wickedness;  for  such  was  the  conduct  of  Jezebel,  who,  having  deter- 
mined to  destroy  Naboth,  and  rob  him  of  his  vineyard,  ordered  a  fast 
to  be  proclaimed,  and  to  have  him  falsely  arraigned  and  condemned  of 
blasphemy,  as  a  part  of  that  day's  solemnity. 

But,  saith  the  Prophet,  all  this  is  abomination;  and  if  you  would 
truly  Fast,  it  shall  not  be  as  you  Fast  this  day,  to  make  your  "  Voice  to 
be  heard  on  high,"  as  if  noise  and  outward  vehemency  could  supply  the 
place  of  true  humiliation  of  soul  and  inward  piety — Instead  of  having 
the  fear  and  love  of  God  reigning  in  your  hearts;  instead  of  bending  in 
humble  adoration  before  his  throne ;  purging  away  the  dross  of  your 
iniquity,  and  setting  your  whole  affections,  your  hopes  of  relief  and 
deliverance,  on  the  most  High,  "You  Fast  to  appear  righteous  before 
men,  and  to  promote  your  own  unjust  views."  But,  continues  the 
prophet — "  Is  it  such  a  Fast  as  this  that  the  Lord  has  chosen — For  a 
man  to  bow  down  his  head  as  a  bulrush,  and  to  spread  sackcloth  and 
ashes  under  him?  Wilt  thou  call  this  a  Fast,  and  an  acceptable  Day 
unto  the  Lord?  "  These  are  all  vain  pageantries  and  insignificant  cere- 
monies of  themselves,  and  no  way  tending  to  renew  and  purify  the  heart. 

But,  continues  our  sublime  Prophet,  would  you  know  the  true  Fast 
which  the  Lord  hath  chosen,  is  it  not  this? — 

"  To  loose  the  bands  of  wickedness,  to  undo  the  heavy  burdens  ;  to 
let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  to  break  every  yoke?  Is  it  not  to  deal 
thy  bread  to  the  hungry  and  that  thou  bring  the  poor  that  are  out  cast 
to  thy  house?  When  thou  seest  the  naked  that  thou  cover  him,  and 
that  thou  hide  not  thyself  from  thine  own  flesh." 

Here  is  a  glorious  catalogue  of  Virtues,  a  divine  frame  of  Soul  to 
bring  with  us  in  our  humble  approaches  to  God.  For,  without  this 
divine  frame  of  Soul,  what  are  all  the  Mortifications  of  the  flesh  ;  what 
are  all  the  penances  inflicted  on  the  Body,  what  is  bowing  down  the 
head  to  the  earth,  the  prostrating  ourselves  on  sackcloth,  the  wallowing 
in  ashes,  or  any  outward  rite  or  performance  compared  to  this  holy, 
humble  and  benevolent  frame  of  mind,  and  those  deeds  of  Virtue, 
Bsneficence,  Mercy  and  Justice  which  Isaiah  prescribes  as  the  true 
Requisites  of  a  fast  ? 


I /Si]  KEF.    WILLIAM    SMITH,  D.  D.  45 

As  far  as  Heaven  is  exalted  above  the  earth,  so  far  the  latter  tran- 
scends the  former  !  and  all  Bodily  Abstinences  and  Humiliations  are  of 
no  other  value,  than  as  they  tend  to  Purify  and  Spiritualize  the  Inner 
Man. 

What  would  it  avail  us,  on  this  solemn  day,  to  have  abstained  from 
our  usual  food  and  labours?  What  would  it  avail  us  to  have  humbled 
ourselves  and  bewailed  our  sins,  and  to  have  prayed  to  God  to  avert 
His  anger  from  us,  and  to  deliver  us  from  the  judgments  with  which  we 
are  threatened,  unless  we  resolve  to  "  loose  every  band  of  wickedness; 
and  to  do  away  every  unjust  burden  which  we  can  remove  from  our 
fellow-creatures?"  Of  this  we  maybe  assured,  that  nothing  but  our 
own  sins  can  stand  between  us  and  the  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven. 
When  these  are  done  away,  'through  the  mercies  of  Christ  leading 
us  to  repentance  and  amendment,  we  shall  no  longer  "fast  and  the 
Almighty  not  see — we  shall  no  longer  afflict  our  souls,  and  He  take  no 
knowledge." 

For  what  purpose  God  has  thought  fit  to  permit  a  continuance  of  our 
present  calamities,  whether  in  judgment  or  mercy,  or  both,  is  a  matter 
which  it  becomes  every  man  to  consider  in  his  own  conscience.  I  hope 
but  few  of  the  crying  offences  for  which  the  Jews  were  reduced  to  the 
extremest  misery,  and  delivered  over  to  the  power  of  their  enemies, 
can  be  justly  chargeable  to  the  people  of  this  land ;  nor  can  we  poor 
short-sighted  mortals  pretend  to  open  the  mysterious  volumes  of  Provi- 
dence and  read  its  future  purposes  either  of  mercies  or  judgments 
towards  ourselves — Nor  am  I  fond  of  ascribing  every  striking  dispensa- 
tion of  Providence  to  any  particular  Interposition  of  its  power.  It  is 
sufficient  for  us  that  we  consider  ourselves  always  under  its  general 
government — and  that  we  look  upon  our  own  fortunes  as  suspended  at 
all  times  in  the  uplifted  hand  of  the  Almighty! 

And  therefore  such  questions  as  the  following  will  never  be  improper 
— viz.  'Whether  an  incorruptible  spirit  prevails  in  all  our  public 
measures?  Whether  the  cries  of  the  Widow,  the  Orphan,  the  helpless, 
never  ascended,  unpitied  and  unredressed,  among  us?  Whether  no 
rapacious  and  extortionate  men,  lifted  into  power  by  us,  have  sought  to 
heap  up  wealth  for  themselves  at  the  expense  of  their  bleeding  and 
suffering  country? — 

But  I  forbear  these  and  the  like  questions;  because,  as  I  believe,  the 
guilt  of  none  of  these  things  can  be  chargeable  to  any  who  now  hear 
me;  so  neither  is  the  Redress  of  such  evils  so  immediately  in  our  power; 
and  a  thorough  Redress,  there  is  reason  to  think,  will  be  endeavoured  by 
the  proper  authorities — 

What  chiefly  concerns  us  is,  Repentance,  accompanied  with  earnest 
endeavours  to  amend  our  Lives,  and  fervent  Prayers  for  Grace  to  enable 
us  to  resist  Temptation,  "to  overcome  the  world,"  and  to  turn  from  all 
Iniquity.     For  this  we  may  be  assured  of  that  nothing  but  our  own 


46  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [l/8l 

Sins  and  Unworthiness  can  come  between  us  and  the  propitious  smiles 
of  our  merciful  Creator.  When  these  are  done  away,  through  the 
Grace  of  God,  leading  us  to  Repentance  and  Amendment — "We  shall 
no  longer  Fast,  and  the  Almighty  not  see — We  shall  no  longer  afflict 
our  souls,  and  He  take  no  knowledge,"  or  pity  of  our  distress.  We 
shall  be  raised  from  Sorrow,  and  receive  the  blessing  promised  to  the 
Jews,  on  the  like  conduct — "Our  light  shall  break  forth  as  the  morning, 
our  Health  (or  political  salvation)  shall  spring  forth  speedily;  our 
Righteousness  shall  go  before  us,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  our 
Rere-ward.  We  shall  call,  and  the  Lord  shall  answer:  We  shall  cry, 
and  He  shall  say,  Here  I  am!  If  thou  take  away  from  the  midst  of 
Thee  the  Yoke,  the  putting  forth  of  the  Finger  and  speaking  Vanity; 
If  thou  draw  out  thy  soul  to  the  Hungry)  and  satisfy  the  afflicted  Soul ; 
then  shall  thy  Light  rise  in  (or  out  of)  obscurity,  and  thy  darkness  be 
as  the  noon-day:  The  Lord  shall  guide  thee  continually,  and  satisfy 
thy  soul  in  drought,  and  make  fat  thy  bones:  Thou  shalt  be  like 
a  watered  Garden,  and  like  a  spring  of  water,  whose  waters  fail  not — 
They  that  shall  be  of  you  (or  remain  of  you,  your  reformed  and  happy 
posterity)  shall  build  the  old  waste  places  (that  is,  the  Houses  and 
Cities,  that  have  been  destroyed  and  made  desolate,  shall  again  be  built 
up,  and  become  the  joyous  dwellings  of  a  happy  people,  by  dependence 
upon  God  and  turning  to  the  ways  of  his  commandment,  as  warned  by 
his  late  visitation  of  you  in  judgment).  Ye  shall  yet  be  raised  up,  as 
the  foundations  of  many  generations — Millions  shall  spring  from  your 
loins  to  possess  an  immense  and  happy  country;  and  every  Hero,  every 
Patriot,  every  Wise  and  Good  Man  who  contributes  his  share  towards 
the  promotion  of  the  general  welfare  shall  be  called  the  Repairer  of 
the  Breach,  the  Restorer  of  paths  to  dwell  in." 

Great  and  gracious  God !  Grant  that  by  thus  following  the  advice  of 
the  Prophet  to  the  Jews,  for  keeping  a  True  Fast,  and  especially  for 
"hallowing  the  Sabbath  Day,  not  doing  our  own  ways,  nor  finding  our 
own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  our  own  words,  but  delighting  in  Thee,  we 
may  receive  the  promised  reward,  and  be  fed  with  and  preserved  in  the 
Heritage  of  our  Fathers;  "  and  to  Thy  Name,  with  Thy  blessed  Son  and 
Holy  Spirit,  One  God,  Let  the  Glory  and  Praise  be  ascribed  forever 
and  ever  !     Amen  ! 

There  may  be,  perhaps,  nothing  very  remarkable  in  this  dis- 
course. It  is  in  the  good  old-fashioned  style  of  the  Church  of 
England.  It  is  certainly  solid,  serious  and  true.  The  topic  being 
one  so  very  often  well  treated  by  others,  I  should  not  have  made 
so  considerable  extracts  from  it  except  to  follow  it  by  like  extracts 
from  a  sermon  in  contrast  with  it — a  sermon  preached  in  the  same 
Chester    Chapel,   Maryland,  after    the   capture   of   Cornvvallis,   at 


i;8l]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  47 

Yorktown,  which  was  in  fact  the  end  of  the  Revolution,  and  when 
the  Congress  prescribed  the  13th  of  December,  1781,  as  a  day  of 
general  Thanksgiving  and  Prayer  throughout  the  United  States. 
This  latter  sermon,  I  think,  is  in  one  of  Dr.  Smith's  best  styles :  a 
style,  at  all  events,  one  of  his  most  natural  and  easy. 
The  text  was  from  Exodus  xv.  1  : 

"  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord:   for  He  hath  triumphed  gloriously." 

After  a  few  words  dc  circonstancc  the  preacher  breaks  forth  : 

Songs,  or  Hymns  of  praise  and  triumph,  addressed  to  the  great 
Creator  of  Heaven  and  earth  (or  to  the  Divinities  considered  by  the 
nations  that  knew  not  the  true  God,  as  the  supreme  benefactors  of  man- 
kind), were  among  the  oldest  and  most  exalted  compositions  of  Poets, 
and  other  writers,  inspired  as  well  as  uninspired. 

There  is  something  in  Poetry  and  Music  admirably  suited  to  divine 
and  lofty  subjects;  and  it  is  natural  for  the  soul  of  man,  when  struck 
with  anything  surprisingly  great,  good,  or  marvellously  new,  to  break 
forth  beyond  the  cenvnon  modes  of  speech,  into  the  most  rapturous 
strains  of  expression,  accompanied  with  correspondent  Attitudes  of 
Body  and  Modulations  of  Voice.  Even  the  untutored  savages  around 
us  furnish  proofs  of  this ! 

Hence  it  arose,  that  Poetry  and  Music  were  originally  appropriated 
and  confined  to  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  God,  or  the  divinities  of 
the  nations,  to  whom  He  was  not  known  ;  and  the  best  and  wisest  men 
of  all  ages  have  had  recourse  to  divine  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs  in 
the  effusions  of  the  soul  to  the  almighty  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth. 

Ere  yet  temples  were  built,  or  fixed  hours  of  devotion  set  apart  ; 
when  the  voice  of  Conscience  could  be  heard,  and  the  busy  scenes  of 
Art  had  not  seduced  away  the  attention  of  Man  from  the  grand  scenes 
of  Nature;  the  great  Progenitors  of  our  Race,  and  Patriarchs  of  Man- 
kind, as  they  tended  their  flocks  onward  from  pasture  to  pasture,  as 
they  beheld  the  refreshing  Rains  descend,  and  the  Sun,  in  his  turn, 
pour  down  his  refulgent  beams,  to  vivify  and  fertilize  the  earth,  and  to 
rejoice  the  heart  of  man  and  of  every  living  creature;  or  when  they 
were  struck  with  any  more  surprising  effect  or  manifestation  of  Almighty 
Power  and  Goodness,  kindling  their  admiration  and  gratitude — that 
auspicious  moment  they  embraced,  as  the  Tongue  or  Organ  of  Praise 
for  the  whole  Animal  Creation  on  earth,  and  rapt  into  sacred  extasy, 
poured  forth  their  unpremeditated  strains  to  that  adorable  God,  the 
author  of  all  this  bounty,  who  formed  the  earth,  the  Sun  and  Moon 
which  they  beheld ;  that  poised  the  clouds  in  air,  that  enriched  their 
bosoms  with  treasure  and  bade  them  drop  down  in  fatness,  to  rejoice 
herb,  and  beast,  and  man. 


48  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [i/Sl 

These  divine  emanations  of  the  soul,  in  strains  of  praise  and  gratitude 
to  heaven,  are  surely  nothing  less  than  the  express  inspirations  of  God 
himself,  through  the  secret  agency  of  his  grace,  and  the  power  of  his 
works,  in  the  hearts  of  men,  in  those  first  ages  of  simplicity  and  love; 
and,  as  this  was  the  first  origin  of  Poetry,  Music,  and  Songs  of  praise 
before  God,  it  were  to  be  wished  that,  among  all  our  other  improve- 
ments, we  had  not  too  much  improved  away  this  pure  primitive  inter- 
course with  the  Father  of  Light  and  Spirits!  Yet  still,  we  are  to  reflect 
that  this  is  a  world  of  imperfection;  and  that,  as  there  are  advantages, 
there  are  also  inconveniences,  to  every  stage  of  its  progress,  from  origi- 
nal simplicity  to  its  last  stage  of  improvement  and  refinement. 

But  to  proceed;  some  of  the  most  beautiful  pieces  of  divine  poesy  are 
left  us  by  the  eastern  nations,  and  especially  by  the  Hebrews;  in  whose 
compositions  of  this  kind  we  are  more  directly  concerned,  as  they  are 
recorded  for  us  in  our  Bibles.  One  of  the  most  exalted  of  these  is  the 
Song  of  Moses,  from  which  I  have  taken  my  text — composed  in  a  trans- 
port of  joy,  admiration  and  gratitude,  when  he  beheld  thoMighty  One 
of  Israel  divide  the  great  deep  before  his  people,  and  lead  them  through 
on  dry  ground  ;  while  the  waters  closed  with  irresistible  fury  behind 
them,  and  whelmed  their  proud  pursuers  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea! 

This  was  a  subject  marvellous  indeed,  and  astonishing  beyond  a  par- 
allel !  At  the  blast  of  the  nostrils  of  the  God  of  heaven,  the  course  of 
Nature  was  controuled.  A  mighty  ocean  divided  itself  before  the 
Lord.  The  waters  left  their  channel  in  the  heart  of  the  sea.  They 
were  gathered  up  on  either  side,  wave  on  wave,  heap  on  heap,  and 
stood  arrested  or  congealed  in  liquid  mountains  at  the  nod  of  the 
Almighty !  The  children  of  Israel  passed  through  on  dry  ground. 
Immediately  the  waters  closed  with  irresistible  fury;  and  the  hosts  of 
their  proud  pursuers  were  covered,  overwhelmed,  consumed — as  a  stone 
that  sinks  to  the  bottom. 

"  Thus  the  Lord  saved  Israel  that  day,  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  Israel  saw  the  Egyptians  dead  upon  the  sea-shore — 

"Then  sang  Moses  and  the  children  of  Israel  this  Song  unto  the 
Lord,  saying — I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord  for  he  hath  triumphed  glori- 
ous!}'. The  Lord  is  my  strength  and  my  Song;  and  he  is  become  my 
salvation.  He  is  my  God  and  I  will  prepare  Him  an  habitation;  my 
father's  God,  and  I  will  exalt  him.  The  Lord  is  a  man  of  war;  the 
Lord  is  his  name."  * 

In  such  strains  as  these  did  the  raptured  leader  of  Israel,  and  all  his 
host  of  followers,  celebrate  the  God  of  their  fathers,  on  their  deliver- 
ance from  the  rage  of  Pharaoh;  leaving  an  example  for  all  succeeding 
ages  on  the  like  grand  occasions. 

A  like  sacred  example  we   have   in  the  great   festival  sacrifice  and 


*  Exodus,  chapter  xv. 


i;8l]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  49 

thanksgiving  of  David,  on  receiving  back  the  Ark  of  God,  the  groat 
pledge  and  deposition  of  the  civil  and  religious  privileges  of  his  nation. 
On  that  happy  occasion*  "He  and  all  the  Elders  of  the  people,  and 
the  Levites,  ami  the  Captains  over  thousands,  appeared  in  solemn  pro- 
cession, with  instruments  of  music,  psalteries,  and  harps,  and  cymbals. 
and  the  sound  of  the  cornet  and  of  the  trumpet,  and  the  lifting  up  the 
voice  with  joy;  and  David  himself  came  singing  and  dancing  before 
them,  as  a  testimony  of  his  true  piety  and  gratitude;  though  Saul's 
daughter,  beholding  out  at  a  window,  and  not  animated  with  the  same 
godly  rapture,  despised  or  laughed  at  him  in  her  heart  as  guilty  of 
levity." 

But  why  should  I  mention  more  examples?  The  same  Reason  that 
calls  us  to  humble  ourselves  before  God,  on  the  marks  of  his  Dis- 
pleasure, calls  us  to  rejoice  before  Him,  with  Thanksgiving,  on  the 
marks  of  his  Favour.  For  a  series  of  years  past  we  have  had  many 
days  of  weeping  and  sorrow  and  fasting ;  and  the  hardest  heart  must 
bleed  to  recount  the  scenes  of  suffering  and  anguish  and  distress  which 
we  have  beheld.  In  every  city,  in  every  village,  nay,  in  every  private 
house  and  family,  long  hath  the  voice  of  sorrow  been  heard,  for  heroes 
slain  in  battle;  kindred  hands  imbrued  in  kindred  blood;  fathers  de- 
prived of  sons;  sons  of  fathers;  wives  of  husbands;  brothers  of  brothers; 
and  friends  of  friends. 

But  we  are  this  day  called  to  express  our  gratitude  to  God  on  events 
of  a  more  pleasing  nature,  the  Success  of  the  allied  armies  of  these 
United  States,  almost  in  every  quarter  of  our  country,  by  land  and  by 
Sea;  the  blessing  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  giving  us  plentiful  har- 
vests ;  and,  particularly,  the  capture  of  a  General  f  of  the  first  rank, 
with  his  whole  army,  under  the  direction  of  our  illustrious  commander- 
in-chief;  yielding  us  the  happy  prospect  of  a  speedy  restoration  of  our 
former  peace  and  tranquillity,  upon  solid  and  lasting  foundations. 

Although  we  dare  not  call  this  deliverance  a  miracle  in  our  favour,  or 
in  any  degree  comparable  to  the  miracle  for  which  the  song  in  our  text 
was  offered  to  the  God  of  Israel ;  yet  when  we  reflect  on  the  gloomy 
prospect  which  lay  before  us  a  few  months  ago ;  when  we  expected  the 
war  at  our  doors,  and  all  its  concomitant  ravages  and  distress;  when  we 
beheld  our  Fields  waving  with  Plenty,  and  almost  despaired  of  reaping 
them  in  Peace,  or  enjoying  their  Fruits  in  Safety;  can  we  forbear 
praising  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  our  salvation,  for  the  deliver- 
ance he  hath  wrought  for  us,  and  the  security  we  enjoy?  Can  we  for- 
bear to  adore  that  Providence,  which,  by  means  almost  unexpected  to 
us,  "on  the  same  day;  nay  almost  at  the  same  hour,  brought  Fleets 
from  the  South,  and  Armies  from  the  North,  for  our  protection  and 
aid?"     Can  we  cease  to  admire  that  magnanimity  and  steady  perse- 

*  I  Chronicles  xv.  16,  etc.  f  Lord  Cornwallis. 


50  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1781 

verance,  which  enabled  our  allied  forces  to  accomplish  this  great 
deliverance ;  almost  without  any  bloodshed  of  their  Enemies ;  and  to 
exercise  all  the  Virtues  of  Moderation  and  Christian  Heroism,  even 
amidst  the  Triumphs  of  Victory? 

This  great  event  hath  already  been  celebrated  in  Camps,  in  Cities, 
in  Towns  and  Villages,  by  separate  and  voluntary  marks  of  joy  and 
gratitude — But  we  are  this  day  called  to  join,  with  one  voice,  through- 
out all  these  United  States,  as  a  people  connected  in  one  great  and 
common  interest  to  celebrate  this  goodness  of  the  Almighty ;  and  the 
ministers  of  the  altar,  by  their  sacred  office,  are  to  stand  as  the  mouth 
or  organ  of  the  people,  to  offer  up  and  convey  their  public  gratitude  to 
the  throne  of  the  Omnipotent ! 

The  joy  of  this  day,  therefore,  Brethren,  must  not  be  that  noisy  and 
tumultuous  joy,  which  consists  in  outward  actions ;  the  glare  and  pomp 
of  victory  ;  the  display  of  the  spoils  of  War  and  Enemies  ;  Shouts  of 
Triumph;  Illuminations;  Feastings,  and  carnal  Mirth.  It  must  be  a 
Religious  Joy ;  the  Joy  of  the  Heart  before  the  Lord  ;  mixt  with  a  holy 
and  reverential  Fear.  We  are  to  rejoice  in  our  prosperity,  but  yet 
chiefly  as  we  consider  it  to  be  the  means  of  Peace  and  Safety;  and, 
therefore,  while  the  final  issue  of  things  remain  undetermined,  although 
we  may  rejoice,  we  must  rejoice  with  fear  and  trembling;  lest  our  future 
Unworthiness  should  provoke  the  Almighty  to  withhold  his  promised 
blessings,  and  lengthen  out  the  day  of  our  visitation  for  the  further  cor- 
rection of  our  sins,  and  the  manifestation  of  his  power  and  goodness. 

Thus  did  Israel  rejoice  on  their  great  deliverance,  referred  to  in  our 
text. 

For,  "  Israel  saw  that  great  work,  which  the  Lord  did  upon  the 
Egyptians ;  and  the  people  feared  the  Lord,  and  his  servant  Moses. — 
Who,  said  they,  is  like  unto  Thee,  O  Lord,  amongst  the  Gods?  who 
is  like  unto  Thee ;  glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing 
wonders  ?  ' ' 

In  this  spirit  runs  the  proclamation  for  this  day's  solemnity,  which 
has  been  recited  above. 

Let  us  therefore  lift  up  our  voices  to  God,  who,  for  our  deliverance, 
"  hath  triumphed  gloriously.  The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown 
into  the  sea.  The  Lord  is  our  strength  and  salvation,  and  he  shall  be 
the  subject  of  our  song.  He  is  our  God  and  we  will  prepare  Him  an 
habitation  ;  our  father's  God,  and  we  will  exalt  Him.  The  right  hand 
of  the  Lord  is  become  glorious  in  power,  and  hath  dashed  in  pieces  the 
enemy.  They  said,  we  will  pursue,  we  will  overtake,  we  will  divide  the 
spoil." — But  the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than  the  strength  of 
proudest  man — When  his  people  were  but  few,  and  strangers  in  a  foreign 
wilderness ;  when  they  went  from  nation  to  nation  in  search  of  a  settle- 
ment for  themselves  and  their  unborn  posterity,  the  Lord  suffered  no 
man  to  do  them  wrong ;  yea  He  reproved  even  Kings  for  their  sake. 


I/Si]  KEl'.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  5  I 

"Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  for  ever  and  ever:  and  all  the 
people  said  Amen,  and  praised  the  Lord  !  " 

Be  these  great  examples  of  Praise  and  Thanksgiving  followed  by  us 
this  dav;  for  surely  whoever  would  be  tailed  a  subject  of  these  states, 
and  is  content  to  hold  his  Liberty  and  Property  under  their  protection, 
could  never  desire  to  see  their  peace,  however  dear,  established  on 
Conquest  or  Force,  by  any  power  upon  earth  ;  and  therefore  we  must 
rejoice  when  the  Almighty  in  his  providence  appears  to  blast  and  defeat 
the  most  powerful  reiterated  attempts  for  reducing  a  free  People,  to  a 
Government  at  will,  and  unconditional  Submission. 

After  the  days  of  mourning  which  we  have  beheld,  the  short  period 
of  about  nine  months  hath  produced  such  a  series  of  favourable  events, 
for  these  infant  states,  as  astonishes  ourselves ;  and,  among  our  pos- 
terity, will  scarcely  be  believed.  Had  the  incidents  which  have  taken 
place  been  but  proposed  to  our  hopes  a  twelve-month  ago,  by  any  person 
living,  we  should  have  thought  that  he  mocked  our  Credulity,  or  in- 
sulted our  Distress.  But  all  things  are  possible  with  God  ;  and  when 
the  affairs  of  a  People  are  at  the  worst,  then  is  often  the  time  when  the 
mighty  One  of  Israel  is  pleased  to  interpose,  and  therein  to  "  triumph 
gloriously." 

In  such  cases,  it  is  our  indispensable  duty  to  mark  the  manifestations 
of  his  power  with  humble  reverence;  and  to  rejoice  before  him  exceed- 
ingly; but  still,  as  was  said  before,  we  must  "rejoice  with  trembling," 
because  the  same  almighty  Power  which  raised  us  up  in  our  low  estate, 
can  dash  us  to  the  ground  again,  if,  like  the  proud  Assyrian  of  old,  we 
begin  to  boast  ourselves,  and  say  that  our  own  Hand,  or  the  strength  of 
our  own  Arm,  got  us  the  victory. 

"Wherefore,  Brethren  !  let  me,  in  conclusion,  as  is  my  duty,  earnestly 
exhort  you,  in  your  best  and  most  prosperous  estate,  to  be  clothed  with 
Humility,  and  the  Fear  of  God,  in  the  fulness  of  his  Love  ;  ascribing 
only  to  Him  all  power  and  glory  and  victory. 

When  we  come  to  give  Thanks  unto  God,  for  blessings  received,  or 
to  Pray  to  Him  for  success  in  our  undertakings,  it  must  be  with  a  con- 
viction that  all  the  Events  of  this  world,  and  the  fortune  and  fate  of  all 
the  People  and  Nations  in  it,  are  in  his  supreme  disposal !  Let  us, 
therefore,  be  persuaded  that  the  People  and  Nations,  who  most  fervently 
and  earnestly  follow  His  holy  Laws,  and  support  the  Purity  and  Majesty 
of  that  Divine  Religion,  which  he  hath  made  known  to  them,  will  most 
effectually  serve  their  country,  by  obtaining  His  favour. 

In  the  present  moment  of  trial,  all  who  profess  to  love  their  country, 
would  certainly  wish  to  shew  that  Love  by  their  Courage  and  Heroism, 
when  duly  called  upon  to  exercise  them.  But  these  glorious  qualities 
can  stand  upon  no  foundation  but  a  Conscience  at  Peace  with  God,  and 
a  Conviction  that  we  are  engaged  in  His  divine  Cause.  I  trust  that  we 
have  long  since  satisfied  our  own  Reason  and  Conscience,  that  the  cause 


52  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/Sl 

in  which  we  are  engaged  is  not  grounded  on  the  wicked  passions  of 
Ambition,  Malice,  Revenge,  Cruelty,  and  the  like  ;  but  that,  in  sight 
of  Men  and  Angels,  and  of  Him,  who  is  above  all  the  quires  of  Angels, 
we  contend  for  the  security  of  those  sacred  and  unalienable  Rights, 
which  the  good  Providence  of  God  called  us  to  inherit.  These  we  are 
never  to  desert,  but  to  strive  for  them,  at  every  peril,  with  a  holy  and 
unquenchable  Zeal ;  persevering,  if  need  be,  even  unto  Death.  Every 
People  and  Country  have  native  and  essential  Rights,  which  neither  in 
conscience,  nor  in  duty  to  God  and  themselves,  they  can  tamely  sur- 
render. When  Liberty  is  invaded,  when  Property  is  insecure,  when 
Devastation,  and  Plunder,  and  all  the  Horrors  of  War,  are  around  a 
People,  it  is  their  sacred  Duty,  by  every  brave  and  heroic  Exertion,  to 
repel  such  Iniquity  ;  and  to  seek  for  the  Re-establishment  of  Peace  and 
Safety,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  hostile  or  otherwise.  In  such 
cases,  Resistance  is  the  voice  of  Nature,  and  of  God.  We  have  resisted 
— and  Resisted  even  unto  Blood;  and  through  the  blessing  of  God, 
have  repelled  the  danger,  and  opened  the  Prospect  of  future  Safety — 
opened  it  so  far  indeed,  that,  as  already  observed,  our  present  Hopes, 
compared  with  our  former  Fears,  in  the  short  period  of  about  nine 
months,  have  converted  a  kind  of  temporary  Despondency  into  a  well- 
grounded  Confidence,  in  the  Strength  of  the  Almighty 

Post,  therefore,  to  every  sentiment  of  religious  Gratitude  should  we 
be,  if  we  did  not  this  day,  adore  that  Providence  which  has  accom- 
plished such  a  mighty  Salvation  for  our  country  !  And  especially,  let 
us  remember,  as  I  hinted  before,  to  temper  our  Joy,  with  the  consider- 
ation, that  even  the  best  Fruits  of  Victory  are  beset  with  thorns ;  and 
that  what  are  days  of  Rejoicing  to  some,  are  but  days  of  Mourning  to 
others,  whose  dearest  Relatives,  have  given  their  lives,  as  a  sacrifice,  in 
the  Contest.  This  world  is  a  chequered  scene,  and  we  are  to  expect  no 
pure  Bliss  in  it.  But  let  us  act  the  part  of  good  Citizens,  good  Men  and 
good  Christians;  and  then  we  may  safely  trust  the  Issue  to  the  Direction 
of  that  Almighty  Being,  who  is  supremely,  just,  wise,  and  holy ! 

Dr.  Smith  entertained  for  his  family  connections  in  general  a 
warm  regard,  and  in  the  event  of  their  death,  usually  made  some 
record  of  the  fact.    I  find  in  his  "Diary"  this  entry,  May  3d,  1781: 

"John  Wemyss  died  at  this  date,  at  Glasgow,  Scotland.  He  was  a 
Lieutenant  in  the  42d  Royal  Highlanders,  2d  Battalion,  now  73d."  * 

*  I  infer  that  this  John  Wemyss  was  a  relative  of  Dr.  Smith's  wife,  as  she  (as  will  be 
seen  hereafter)  was  connected  with  the  family  of  the  Earl  of  Wemyss.  Lieutenant 
John  Wemyss  had  served  in  America  with  Bouquet,  and  had  been  an  officer  in  Mont- 
gomery's Highlanders.  He  had  also  furnished  Dr.  Smith  with  much  of  the  matter  out 
of  which  he  compiled  his  account  of  the  expedition  against  the  Ohio  Indians.  James 
Wemyss,  who  was  an  uncle  to  Dr.  Smith's  wife,  was  also  with  this  expedition.  He 
was  stationed  in  New  York,  but  returned  to  Scotland  and  became  the  Fifth  Earl  of 
Wemyss. 


I/Si]  REV,    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  53 

During  the  year  1781  Dr.  Smith,  who  had  been  elected  Grand 
Secretary  of  the  Masonic  Grand  Lodge  of  Pennsylvania,  was  re- 
quested to  prepare  for  the  press  a  new  edition,  in  an  abridged  form, 
of  the  "  Rook  of  Constitutions."  This  he  did,  making  also  a  Preface 
to  the  work.  The  minutes  of  a  meeting  held  November  22,  178 1, 
give  us  these  records : 

The  Abridgement  of  the  Book  of  Constitutions  being  read,  the  same 
was  unanimously  approved  of,  and  ordered  to  be  printed;  and  also,  that 
the  Thanks  of  this  Grand  Lodge  be  given  to  our  beloved  Brother,  the 
Reverend  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  Grand  Secretary,  for  the  great  Care 
and  Attention  he  has  bestowed  in  revising  and  abridging  the  said  Book 
of  Constitutions. 

Resolved,  That  the  Mason's  Arms  be  engraved  as  a  frontispiece  for 
the  book,  and  in  case  our  beloved  and  illustrious  brother  Gen1  Wash- 
ington permit  it  to  be  dedicated  to  him,  that  his  Excellency's  arms  be 
engraved  and  prefixed  to  the  dedication. 

The  Dedication  to  General  Washington  is  found  in  the  book. 
It  is  thus  : 

To  his  Excellency  George  Washington,  Esq.,  General  and  Commander 
in  Chief  of  the  Armies  of  the  United  States  of  America: 
In  Testimony,  as  well  of  his  exalted  Services  to  his  Country,  as  of 
that  no*ble  Philanthropy  which  distinguishes  him 
among  Masons. 
The  following  Constitutions  of  the  most  ancient  and  honour- 
able Fraternity  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons,  by 
Order  and  in  Behalf  of  the  Grand  Lodge 
of  Pennsylvania,  (Sec,  is 
dedicated, 
By  his  Excellency's  most  humble  Servant, 
and  faithful  Brother, 
William  Smith,  Grand  Secretary. 
June  24,  1782. 

The  Preface  to  the  book,  as  we  have  said,  is  from  Dr.  Smith's 
pen.  It  is  curious  as  illustrating  the  range  of  his  information  and 
interests.  To  those  readers  who  take  pleasure  in  the  recondite 
subject  of  Free  Masonry,  it  will  have  perhaps  attraction.  For  them 
chiefly  I  give  it  here  : 

The  design  of  the  following  work  (according  to  the  appointment  of 
the  Grand  Lodge)  is  only  to  extract,  abridge  and  digest  under  distinct 
heads,  the  several  parts  of  Ahiman  Rezon,  so  as  to  be  most  intelligible 


54  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1781 

and  useful  to  operative  Masons  in  America.  The  officers  of  Lodges, 
and  those  members  who  wish  to  be  more  completely  learned  in  the 
grand  science  and  sublimer  mysteries  of  Ancient  Masonry,  will  think  it 
their  duty,  as  opportunities  offer,  to  furnish  themselves,  or  their  Lodges, 
with  at  least  one  copy  of  all  approved  and  duly  authorised  books  of 
Masonry,  which  may  be  published  by  the  learned  Lodges,  or  illustrious 
brethren,  in  different  languages  and  countries  of  the  world,  from  time 
to  time. 

Upon  this  plan,  therefore,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  detain  the  reader 
with  any  long  account  of  the  antiquity  of  the  Royal  Art.  Certain  it  is, 
that  when  the  first  man  was  formed  in  the  image  of  God,  the  principles 
of  Masonry,  as  a  divine  gift  from  heaven,  were  stamped  upon  his  heart 
by  the  great  Architect  of  the  universe.  The  same  principles  were  after- 
wards renewed  and  placed  upon  everlasting  foundations,  by  the  wisdom 
of  his  glorious  Son;  and  they  are  daily  cultivated  in  every  soul  that 
delights  in  order,  harmony,  brotherly  love,  morality  and  religion, 
through  the  grace  and  goodness  of  his  divine  Spirit — thrice  blessed 
Three,  in  one  eternal  God-head ! 

Thus  instructed  from  above,  the  sublime  operative  and  mechanic  part 
of  Masonry  was  practised  by  Adam  in  the  bowers  of  Paradise,  and 
propagated  among  chosen  men  of  his  posterity,  in  a  lesser  or  greater 
degree  of  perfection,  through  the  different  nations  of  the  world  (as 
learned  brethren  have  fully  shewn),  nor  was  the  noble  art  lost  by  the 
Israelites  either  during  their  peregrination  in  Egypt,  or  journeyings  i.i 
the  deserts  of  Arabia.  For  there  it  pleased  the  supreme  Architect  to 
inspire  those  great  Master  Masons,  Bezaleel  and  Aholiab,  and  to  put 
"wisdom  and  understanding  into  their  heart,  and  to  teach  them  how 
to  work  all  manner  of  work,  for  the  service  of  the  *  Sanctuary,  and 
erecting  that  most  glorious  Tent  or  Tabernacle,  wherein  the  divine 
Shechinah  vouchsafed  to  promise  a  special  residence;  which,  although 
not  of  stone  or  brick,  was  framed  by  Geometry,  a  most  beautiful  piece 
of  architecture  (and  afterwards  the  model  of  Solomon's  Temple)  accord- 
ing to  the  pattern  that  God  had  shewn  to  Moses  in  the  Mount." 

And  thus  Moses,  a  man  supremely  skill'd  in  all  the  Egyptian  learn- 
ing, who,  to  his  other  titles,  added  that  of  King  of  Jesurun,  being 
divinely  taught  in  the  art  of  building,  became  Grand  Master-mason  or 
Builder  among  the  Israelites,  "and  often  marshalled  them  into  a  regular 
and  general  Lodge,  while  in  the  wilderness;  and  gave  them  wise  charges 
and  orders,  had  they  been  but  well  observed." — But  of  this  no  more 
must  be  mentioned. 

,  We  pass  on  to  speak  more  particularly  of  Solomon's  Temple,  at  the 
building  of  which,  under  the  divine  direction,  were  displayed,  in  an 

*  Exodus  xxxvi. 


I/Sl]  ££V.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  55 

unparalleled  degree,  all  the  glory,  beauty  and  sublimity  of  Masonry; 
there  being  no  fewer  than  *  three  thousand  six  hundred  Master  Masons, 
eighty  thousand  Fellow  Craftsmen,  and  seventy  thousand  Labourers, 
employed  in  this  magnificent  and  Heaven-conducted  work. 

But  above  all  the  rest,  our  Grand  Master  Hiram  shone  superlatively 
great,  as  chief  Director,  and  the  most  accomplished  Mason  upon  earth. 
For  to  this  character  of  him  the  holy  Scripture  gives  testimony,  in  the 
recommendatory  letter  which  Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  sent  with  him  to 
King  Solomon, — "And  now  I  have  sent  a  cunning  man,  endued  with 
understanding,  the  son  of  a  woman  of  the  daughters  of  Dan;  and  his 
father  was  a  man  of  Tyre,  skilful  to  work  in  gold  and  in  silver,  in  brass, 
in  iron,  in  stone  and  in  timber,  in  purple,  in  blue  and  in  fine  linen,  and 
in  crimson;  also  to  grave  any  manner  of  graving,  and  to  find  out  every 
device  which  shall  be  put  to  him  with  thy  cunning  men  and  with  the 
cunning  men  of  my  Lord  David,  thy  Father."  f 

Thus  we  see  that  our  great  Master  Hiram  was  accomplished  in  almost 
every  art  and  science  then  known  upon  earth  ;  as  all  those  should  aspire 
to  be,  who  wish  to  become  useful  Masons,  the  Masters  of  Lodges,  and 
the  Rulers  or  Instructors  of  others.  It  is  here  further  to  be  observed, 
that  so  highly  was  this  Chief  of  Masons  honoured  by  his  master  the 
King  of  Tyre,  that  in  all  probability  he  had  called  him  Hiram,  or 
Huram,  after  his  own  royal  name. 

It  would  be  foreign  to  our  present  design  (as  already  hinted)  to  men- 
tion the  illustrious  Masons  that  in  all  ages,  from  the  building  of  Solo- 
mon's Temple  down  to  the  ages  of  general  darkness  and  barbarity,  have 
adorned  the  different  countries  of  the  world  ;  as  Syria,  Mesopotamia, 
Assyria,  Chaldea,  Babylonia,  Media,  Persia,  Arabia,  Africa,  lesser  Asia, 
Grecia,  Rome,  &c,  &c.  The  remains  of  temples,  pyramids  and  mighty 
towers,  yet  declare  their  builders'  glory;  and,  even  in  Gothic  ages,  the 
chief  monuments  of  taste  and  grandeur  are  to  be  seen  in  the  works  of 
Masonry  and  Architecture. 

Seven  hundred  years  ago,  William,  called  the  Conqueror,  built  the 
Tower  of  London;  his  son,  William  Rufus,  built  Westminster  Hall; 
which,  as  one  room  or  Lodge,  is  said  to  be  the  largest  in  the  known 
world  ; — which  grand  monuments  of  Gothic  Architecture  were  all  raised 
in  the  taste  and  spirit,  delivered  down  from  those  ancient  Craftsmen 
and  learned  Masons  sent  into  England,  at  the  request  of  the  Saxon 
Kings,  by  Charles  Martell,  King  of  France,  more  than  one  thousand 
years  ago. 

But  for  the  further  instruction  of  the  reader,  concerning  the  founda- 
tion and  antiquity  of  what  is  called  York  Masonry,  the  following  record, 
written   in   the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  of  England,  viz.,  three   hundred 

*  i  Kings  v.  15;  2  Chron.  xi.  18.  i  2  Chron.  ii.  13,  14. 


56  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [1781 

years  ago,  is  here  inserted;  which,  with  another  famous  record,  pub- 
lished by  the  great  Philosopher  John  Locke,  Esq.  ;  (and  likewise  herein 
after  inserted)  will  be  enough  on  this  subject. 

"Although  the  ancient  records  of  the  brotherhood  in  England  were 
many  of  them  destroyed  or  lost  in  the  wars  of  the  Saxons  and  Danes, 
yet  it  is  known  that  King  Athelstan,  the  grandson  of  Alfred  the  Great, 
who  was  a  mighty  architect,  the  first  true  King  of  England,  and  who 
translated  the  holy  Bible  into  the  Saxon  tongue,  when  he  had  brought 
the  land  into  rest  and  peace,  built  many  great  works,  and  encouraged 
many  Masons  from  France,  who  were  appointed  overseers  thereof,  and 
brought  with  them  the  charges  and  regulations  of  the  Lodges  preserved 
since  the  Roman  times.  These  Masons  likewise  prevailed  with  the  King 
to  improve  the  Constitution  of  the  English  Lodges  according  to  the 
foreign  model,  and  to  increase  the  wages  of  working  Masons. 

"The  said  King  Athelstan's  youngest  son  Edwin  being  taught 
Masonry,  and  taking  upon  him  the  charges  of  a  Master  Mason,  for  the 
love  he  had  to  the  said  craft,  and  the  honourable  principles  whereon  it 
is  grounded,  purchased  a  free  charter  of  his  father;  giving  the  Masons 
a  right  of  correction  among  themselves  (as  it  was  anciently  expressed) 
or  a  freedom  and  power  to  regulate  themselves,  to  amend  what  might 
happen  amiss,  and  to  hold  an  Yearly  Communication,  or  General 
Assembly. 

"In  virtue  of  this  charter,  Prince  Edwin  summoned  all  the  Masons  in 
England  to  meet  him  in  a  congregation  at  York ;  who  accordingly  at- 
tended his  summons,  and  composed  a  General  Lodge,  of  which  he  was 
Grand  Master;  and  having  brought  with  them  and  collected  together 
all  the  writings  and  records  which  were  extant  concerning  Masonry 
(some  in  Latin,  some  in  French,  and  other  languages)  from  the  con- 
tents of  the  whole,  that  Assembly  or  grand  Congregation  did  frame  the 
Constitution  and  Charges  of  the  English  or  great  ancient  York  Lodge; 
and  made  a  law  to  preserve  and  observe  the  same  in  all  future  time, 
ordaining  likewise  good  pay  for  working  Masons. — And  the  said  con- 
stitution, charges  and  laws,  having  been  afterwards  seen  and  perused  by 
Henry  the  VI.  and  by  the  Lords  of  his  Council  (most  of  whom  were 
Masons)  were  consented  to  and  allowed  to  be  right,  good  and  reason- 
able to  be  holden,  as  they  were  thus  drawn  out  and  collected  from  the 
records  of  ancient  times."  The  great  Philosopher,  Mr.  Locke,  already 
mentioned,  likewise  tells  us  that  the  famous  manuscript,  on  the  an- 
tiquity of  Free  Masonry,  found  in  the  Bodleian  Library  (herein  after 
published)  is  said  to  have  been  originally  in  the  "hand-writing  of  the 
same  King  Henry." 

'Tis  true,  while  this  Prince  was  an  infant,  and  his  Parliament,  it  is 
believed,  not  very  wise  (learning  being  then  deemed  a  crime,  and 
Geometry  passing  for  Conjuration),  a  law  was  passed  which  deprived 
Masons  of  some  of  their  ancient  charter  privileges,  by  forbidding  them 
"to  confederate  themselves  into  Chapters  and  Congregations." 


178 1 ]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  57 

"Whereas  (says  the  law)  by  yearly  Congregations  and  Confederacies, 
made  by  the  Masons  in  their  General  Assemblies,  the  good  course  and 
effect  of  the  statutes  for  labourers  be  openly  violated  and  broken,  in 
subversion  of  the  law,  and  to  the  great  damage  of  all  the  commons,  our 
Sovereign  Lord  the  King,  willing  in  this  case  to  provide  a  remedy,  by 
the  advice  and  assent  aforesaid,  and  at  the  special  request  of  the  com- 
mons, hath  ordained  and  established  that  such  Chapters  and  Congrega- 
tions shall  not  hereafter  be  holden  ;  and  if  any  such  be  made,  that  they 
cause  such  Chapters  and  Congregations  to  be  assembled  and  holden,  if 
they  thereof  be  convict,  shall  be  judged  for  felons,  and  that  the  other 
Masons  that  come  to  such  Chapters  and  Congregations  be  punished  by 
imprisonment  of  their  bodies,  and  make  fine  and  ransom  at  the  King's 
will."— Co.  Inst.  3. 

But,  as  was  said  before,  this  Parliament  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
made  up  of  many  wise  heads,  and  tradition  informs  us  also  that  they 
were  too  much  influenced  by  the  ignorant  Monks  and  illiterate  Clergy 
(not  like  those  of  modern  days,  or  of  the  early  ages,  who  were  many  of 
them  eminent  Masons  and  friends  to  Masons)  but  a  sett  of  men,  who 
thought  they  had  a  right  to  know  all  men's  secrets,  by  means  of  confes- 
sion ;  and  therefore  hated  the  Masons,  and  represented  them  as  danger- 
ous to  the  state,  because  they  kept  their  own  secrets,  and  made  no  use 
of  Confessors  at  all.  But  the  King,  when  he  came  to  man's  estate,  ap- 
proved the  Masonic  Constitution,  as  above  set  forth,  without  any  regard 
to  the  said  Act  of  Parliament;  which  the  great  Lord  Coke  tells  us  is 
now  of  no  effect — "For,"  says  he,  "all  the  Statutes  concerning  labour- 
ers, whereunto  this  act  doth  refer,  are  repealed  by  the  Statute  V.  Eliz. 
Chap.  IV.  ;  whereby  the  cause  and  end  of  making  this  Act  is  taken  away, 
and  consequently  this  act  is  become  of  no  force  or  effect;  for  ccssante 
ratione  Lcgis,  eessat  ipsa  Lex.  And  the  indictment  of  felony  upon  this 
Statute  must  contain,  that  those  Chapters  and  Congregations  were  to  the 
violating  and  breaking  of  the  good  course  and  effect  of  the  Statutes  of 
labourers;  which  now  cannot  be  so  alledged,  because  these  Statutes  be 
repealed."  This  quotation  is  thought  to  confirm  the  tradition  that  this 
most  learned  Judge  really  belonged  to  the  ancient  Lodge,  and  was  a 
faithful  Brother. 

We  read  further,  that  Queen  Elizabeth  once  entertained  some  con- 
siderable prejudices  concerning  the  truly,  ancient  and  honourable  body 
of  Free  Masons.  We  know  it  was  part  of  this  Queen's  character,  among 
all  her  rare  and  princely  virtues,  to  be  of  a  jealous  temper,  with  a  great 
curiosity  to  be  Mistress  of  all  secrets,  and  an  enemy  to  all  meetings  or 
assemblies  of  her  subjects,  whose  business  she  was  not  duly  apprized  of. 
Being  told  by  some  of  her  ignorant  and  busy  meddling  Courtiers,  that 
the  Masons  had  secrets  that  could  not  be  revealed  to  her,  and  altho'  as 
a  woman,  she  could  govern  a  Nation,  yet  she  could  not  govern  a  Lodge, 
nor  be  made  Grand  Master  (or  Mistress)  of  Masons;  she  therefore  sent 


58  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1781 

an  armed  force  to  break  up  the  annual  Grand  Lodge  at  York,  on  St. 
John's  Day,  December  27th,  1561.  Sir  Thomas  Sackvilie,  then  Grand 
Master,  instead  of  being  dismayed  at  such  an  unexpected  visit,  gallantly 
told  the  officers  that  nothing  could  give  him  greater  pleasure  than  see- 
ing them  in  the  Grand  Lodge,  as  it  would  give  him  an  opportunity  of 
convincing  them  that  Free  Masonry  was  the  most  honourable  institution 
that  ever  was  founded,  and  truly  consonant  to  Laws  both  divine  and 
moral.  The  consequence  was  that  he  made  the  chief  men  Free  Masons; 
who,  on  their  return,  made  an  honourable  report  to  the  Queen,  so  that 
she  never  more  attempted  to  dislodge  or  disturb  them,  but  esteemed 
them  as  a  peculiar  sort  of  men,  that  cultivated  peace  and  friendship, 
arts  and  sciences,  without  meddling  in  the  affairs  of  Church  or  State. 

Thus  hath  Masonry  flourished  through  different  ages  in  the  old  world, 
and  hath  obtained  a  very  noble  and  solid  foundation  in  this  new  or 
American  world.  Were  it  necessary,  we  might  proceed  to  shew  that 
from  this  ancient  Fraternity,  "the  Societies  or  Orders  of  Warlike 
Knights,  and  even  some  religious  Orders  and  Societies,  have  borrowed 
many  of  their  wisest  institutions  and  most  solemn  usages.  For  none  of 
them  were  better  instituted,  more  decently  installed,  or  did  more  sa- 
credly observe  their  Laws  and  Charges,  than  the  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons  have  done;  and  therefore  their  whole  body,  thus  cemented,  re- 
sembles a  strong  and  well-built  Arch,  having  as  its  members  and  parts, 
for  time  immemorial,  Princes  and  Nobles,  Gentlemen,  Clergymen, 
learned  Scholars  and  Artists  of  the  first  rank,  in  all  countries."* 

Three  dozen  of  the  books  of  the  Constitutions  were  presented 
to  Dr.  Smith  "  for  the  great  care  and  attention  which  he  has  had 
in  revising  the  same."  This  "Ahiman  Rezon"  is  still  known  as 
"Smith's."  It  has  a  beautifully  engraved  frontispiece,  and  is  a 
book  much  valued  by  collectors.  The  preface  to  it  has  been  the 
subject  of  eulogy  in  my  hearing  by  the  accomplished  chair- 
man of  thj  Library  Committee  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Mr.  C.  E.  Meyer,  for  the  skill  with  which  it  states  matters 
long  the  subject  of  difference  between  certain  Grand  Lodges. 

*  The  title  page  is  thus  :  "  Ahimax  REZON  |  abridged  and  digested  :  |  as  a  |  Help  to 
all  that  are,  or  would  be  |  Free  and  Accepted  Masons.  |  To  which  is  added  |  A  SER- 
MON, I  Preached  in  Christ-Church,  Philadelphia,  |  At  a  General  Communication,  | 
Celebrated,  agreeable  to  the  Constitutions,  on  |  Monday,  December  28,  1778,  |  as  the 
Anniversary  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist.  |  Published  by  order  of  |  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Pennsylvania,  |  By  William  Smith,  D.  D.  |  Philadelphia  :  |  Printed  by  Hall  and 
Sellers.  I  m,dcc,lxxxiii." 


178 1]  A'£I'.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  59 


CHAPTER   XLII. 
Dr.   Smith  preaches  a  Funeral   Discourse  on  the  Rev.    Hugh   Neill,  of 

WHOM    SOME  ACCOUNT    IS  GIVEN — DEATH  OF   MRS.    BLACKWELL,    WlFE   OF    THE 

Rev.  Mr.  Blackwell — Notice  and  Elegiac  Stanzas  upon  her  Death 
attributed  to  dll.  smith — the  convention  of  i782  in  maryland — 
Si  (cess  of  Kent  County  School,  and  Development  of  Washington 
College,  Maryland — Death  of  William  Moore,  Esq.,  of  Moore  Hall. 

In  the  account  which  we  have  given  in  our  former  volume  of 
St.  Paul's  Church,  in  Third  street,  Philadelphia,  the  matrix  of  the 
low-church  parishes  in  Pennsylvania,  we  refer  to  the  Rev.  Hugh 
Neill,  one  of  the  most  respectable  of  the  clergy  of  this  Methodis- 
tical  side  of  the  Episcopal  body.  Mr.  Neill  was  born  in  New 
Jersey,  and  had  been  bred  a  Presbyterian,  and  preached  in  that 
sect  in  his  native  State  until  1749,  when  he  went  to  England  and 
took  orders  in  the  Church,  and  was  licensed  by  the  Bishop  of 
London  for  Pennsylvania,  March  26th,  1750.  He  was  sent, 
however,  by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  to 
Dover,  in  Delaware,  which,  indeed,  then  made  a  part  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  here  he  remained  until  1760,  when  he  was  transferred 
to  Trinity  Church,  Oxford,  Pennsylvania,  preaching  on  Sunday 
evenings  at  Germantown.  In  1765  he  officiated  in  Philadelphia  at 
St.  Paul's,  and  in  1766,  having  received  from  Governor  Sharpe,  of 
Maryland,  an  induction  as  rector  of  the  parish  of  St.  Paul's  in 
Queen  Anne  county,  he  left  Philadelphia  for  that  charge,  having 
refused  to  receive  any  pay  for  his  services.  In  order  to  show  their 
appreciation  of  this  kindness,  the  vestry  of  St.  Paul's,  Philadelphia, 
presented  him  with  a  piece  of  plate  bearing  the  following 
inscription : 

The  Gift  of 

St.  Paul's  Church  in  Philadelphia 

to 

the  Rev.  Hugh  Neill, 

in  gratitude  for  his  disinterested  ministerial 

services  to  that  Church. 

A.  d.  1766. 


60  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1782 

In  1773,  refusing  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new  Gov- 
ernment, he  left  his  charge.  He  returned,  however,  in  1780.  By 
his  last  will  he  left  the  above-mentioned  piece  of  silver  plate  to  St. 
Paul's  Church.  He  ministered  at  St.  Paul's,  in  Queen  Anne  county, 
Md.,  sixteen  or  seventeen  years.  Though  he  was,  as  I  suppose, 
of  the  school  of  Wesley  and  Whitfield,  and  though  Dr.  Smith, 
according  to  Mr.  Neill's  own  account,  treated  him,  on  one  occasion 
at  least,  very  roughly,*  he  had  so  many  good  qualities  of  personal 
character,  that  Dr.  Smith  came  at  last  to  entertain  for  him  a 
sincere  regard,  and  apparently  did  so  even  while  he  was  in  Phil- 
adelphia and  connected  with  St.  Paul's  there,  a  parish  in  which  Dr. 
Smith  was  no  more  a  favorite  than  were  any  other  regularly  be- 
haved clergy  of  the  Church  of  England.  After  Dr.  Smith  went  to 
Maryland,  he  met  often  his  ancient  acquaintance  of  Philadelphia, 
and  at  his  death  preached,  January  23d,  1782,  an  affecting  sermon 
at  his  funeral.  Dr.  Smith's  text,  from  Genesis  xv.  15 — "Thou 
shalt  go  to  my  fathers  in  peace  ;  thou  shalt  be  buried  in  a  good 
old  age  " — suggests  that  Mr.  Neill  at  his  death  had  attained  to 
venerable  years. 

We  have  mentioned  in  our  first  volume  the  interest  which  Dr. 
Smith  took  while  in  Philadelphia  in  "  the  mission  at  Gloucester," 
as  it  was  called ;  a  mission  in  New  Jersey,  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel.  With  the  mission  at  Burlington 
(N.  J.),  occupied  by  Dr.  Smith's  accomplished  and  much  valued 
friend,  Dr.  Jonathan  Odell,  it  was  one  of  the  important  mis- 
sionary stations  of  New  Jersey,  especially  in  its  aspects  to  the 
Church  in  Philadelphia.  The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Evans,  a  favorite 
pupil  of  Dr.  Smith,  and  a  graduate  of  the  College  at  Philadelphia, 
a  young  man  of  singular  talents,  accomplishment  and  piety,  had 
been  the  first  occupant  of  it,  entering  upon  the  mission  in  1765, 
and  dying  there  two  years  afterwards,  in  1767,  deeply  lamented  by 
all  who  knew  him.f  Dr.  Smith  edited  his  literary  remains,  thus 
showing  his  regard  for  him.  Dr.  Smith  was  thus  a  frequent 
visitor  at  Gloucester,  where  he  became  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  most  important  families  of  the  region,  including  more 
particularly  among  them  that  of  Mr.  Joseph  and  Ann  Harrison. 
Dr.  Smith  took  much  pains  to  re-establish  the  missions  after  Mr. 

*  See  Perry's  Historical  Collections  of  Pennsylvania,  page  319. 
-j-  For  a  sketch  of,  see  vol.  1st,  pp.  434,  479. 


1782]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  6l 

Evans'  death.  The  Rev.  David  Griffith,  afterwards  Bishop  elect 
of  Virginia,  was  in  it;  only,  however,  for  a  short  time.  The  Rev. 
John  Lyons  also  occupied  it  for  a  short  time,  but  neither  with 
effect.  In  1772  the  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell  entered  into  charge — 
a  young  gentleman  of  high  integrity,  amiable  disposition,  sound 
sense,  solid  learning  and  unquestioned  piety.  These  excellent 
qualities  made  him  a  favorite  with  all  who  knew  him,  and  espec- 
ially with  Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Smith.*  Mr.  Blackwell  remained 
at  Gloucester  until  the  mission  was  broken  up  by  the  Revolution, 
when,  becoming  a  chaplain  in  the  army,  he  went  to  the  Valley 
Forge,  and  during  the  winter  of  1777-78 — which  Dr.  Smith  passed 
close  to  him  at  Norristown — the  two  clergymen  were,  of  course,  in 
more  or  less  consultation  as  to  the  exercises  of  their  office ;  Dr. 
White  being  at  Yorktown  with  the  Congress,  as  we  have  already 
stated  in  an  early  part  of  this  volume.  In  178 1  Mr.  Blackwell  became 
one  of  the  ministers  of  the  United  Churches  of  Christ  and  St.  Peter's, 
in  Philadelphia,  a  post  which  he  occupied  with  much  dignity 
and  usefulness  for  thirty  years,  and  in  which,  as  in  the  College  of 
Philadelphia,  of  which  he  was  afterwards  a  trustee,  he  was  of 
necessity  in  frequent  relations  with  Dr.  Smith.  While  at 
Gloucester,  he  became  attached  to  Miss  Rebecca  Harrison,  a 
daughter  of  the  family  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  for  which 
Dr.  Smith  had  cherished  a  high  regard ; — a  young  lady  of  un- 
usual attractiveness  and  merit.  She  died  on  Monday,  the  25th 
of  February,  1782,  a  year  or  two  after  her  marriage,  in  giving  birth 
to  a  daughter,  who  survived.  An  obituary  notice  of  her  and  some 
elegiac  stanzas  addressed  to  her  sister,  and  attributed  to  Dr. 
Smith,  may  properly  be  here  inserted  as  an  illustration  alike  of 
his  sympathetic  heart  and  ever-ready  and  accomplished  pen. 
Such  things  are  indeed  in  one  sense  of  no  great  value.  Never- 
theless, like  a  good  deal  that  I  have  sought  to  preserve  in  my 
volumes,  they  show  a  refinedness  of  feeling  in  our  early  society, 
and  an  elegance  in  our  early  ephemeral  literature  which  it  would  be 
well  for  our  own  day  if  they  had  descended  in  a  more  abundant 
measure  to  it. 

Death  of  Mrs.  Rebecca  Blackwell. 

On   Monday  morning  last,    the  wife   of  the  Rev.    Mr.    Blackwell, 
Assistant   Minister  of  the   United  Churches,    Philadelphia,   was  safely 

*  For  a  sketch  of  this  respected  gentleman,  see  Appendix  No.  I. 


62  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1782 

delivered  of  a  daughter  at  his  house  in  Gloucester  to  the  great  joy  of 
his  family  and  friends.  But  the  pleasing  hopes  arising  from  the  happy 
event  were  soon  changed  to  the  deepest  sorrow  on  perceiving  an 
alteration  which  indicated  her  approaching  dissolution  ;  and,  notwith- 
standing that  the  best  medical  assistance  was  procured,  she  expired 
about  four  o'clock  the  same  afternoon. 

Her  remains  were  deposited  on  Thursday,  attended  by  a  great 
concourse  of  friends  and  acquaintances  to  pay  the  last  melancholy 
offices  to  a  character  so  deservedly  esteemed  and  beloved. 

Blessed  by  nature  with  a  comprehensive  understanding  and  most  lively 
fancy,  she  had  improved  the  one  by  an  excellent  education,  and  refined 
the  other  by  a  solidity  of  judgment  uncommon  to  her  sex.  With  the 
former  she  ever  promoted  the  cause  of  virtue,  and  with  the  latter  made 
folly  ridiculous,  and  put  vice  out  of  countenance.  Adorned  with 
every  social  virtue,  she  felt  the  most  exalted  sentiments  of  friendship; 
and  with  a  delicacy  peculiar  to  herself,  selected  such  to  share  her 
confidence  as  were  capable  of  the  same  refined  ideas,  while  the  tender- 
ness of  her  heart  melted  at  the  tale  of  woe,  and  from  the  child  of  want 
her  face  was  never  turned  aside.  When  the  voice  of  nature  and  of 
reason  dictated  a  change  of  condition,  she  did  not  place  her  affections 
on  pomp  or  wealth,  but  bestowed  them  on  one  whose  propriety  of 
sentiment  and  purity  of  morals  were  consonant  to  her  own.  And 
the  happiness  of  both  was  such  as  might  be  expected  from  a  union 
where  kindred  merits  and  mutual  esteem  had  ripened  friendship  into 
love.  Thus,  though  in  possession,  yet  from  a  conviction  of  the 
instability  of  human  happiness,  she  had  Temembered  her  Creator  in  the 
days  of  her  youth,  and  devoted  herself  to  the  practice  of  those  essential 
duties  of  religion  without  the  performance  of  which  no  true  felicity  can 
be  enjoyed  here,  or  a  happy  immortality  be  hoped  for  hereafter.  Thus 
living  and  thus  beloved,  by  a  stroke  unexpected  to  her  friends,  but  not 
sudden  to  herself,  whose  lamp  was  always  burning,  on  the  25th  of 
February,  1782,  and  in  the  25th  year  of  her  age,  was  this  amiable 
pattern  of  Christian  virtues,  to  the  unspeakable  grief  of  her  relations,  and 
the  irreparable  loss  of  her  husband,  removed  from  this  transitory  scene. 

Not  to  be  affected  with  and  lament  a  blow  so  severe,  would  discover 
a  want  of  those  feelings  which  constitute  the  dignity  of  human  nature. 

TO    STELLA.* 

CPON"    A    LATE    MELANCHOLY    BEREAVEMENT. 

No  more  my  fancy  charms,  ye  dreams 
Of  earthly  bliss:     More  awful  themes 

Demand  a  serious  strain. 
Your  grief  sublimer  thoughts  inspire 
Than  trifling  mirth  or  vain  desires, 

Or  pleasure's  gayest  scenes. 


Miss  Sarah  Harrison,  I  suppose;  sister  to  Mrs.  Llackwell. — II.  W.  S. 


1/82]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  63 


The  solemn  spectacle  is  o'er, 

Yet,  bowed  with  grief,  you  still  deplore, 

With  pining  anguish,  mourn. 
Forever  flow  your  streaming  eyes, 
Your  hosom  heaves,  with  deepest  sighs, 

For  her  who  can't  return. 
She  is  no  more  !     The  fatal  blow 
Filled  every  breast  with  poignant  woe. 

Then  what  must  Stella  feel! 
Whose  heart,  by  strong  affection  swayed, 
With  fond  affection  was  repaid, 

And  friendship's  wannest  zeal. 

On  her  was  every  grace  bestowed, 
Soft  from  her  lips  persuasion  flowed, 

And  charmed  each  listening  ear. 
Like  music  through  the  veins  it  thrilled, 
Each  breast  with  sweetest  rapture  filled, 

And  smoothed  the  brow  of  care. 

But  now  to  parent  earth  consigned, 
Oh  1   where  shall  we  her  equal  find, 

The  joys  of  life  to  crown  ! 
Her  loved  remains  in  dust  reposed, 
Her  radiant  eyes  forever  closed, 

Where  mildest  influence  shone. 
Oh,  could  the  grateful  Muse's  strain 
Console  the  grief,  assuage  the  pain, 

Which  fills  your  tender  breast — 
From  sorrow  could  she  draw  a  smile, 
Or  keen  affection's  pangs  beguile, 

The  thought  would  make  her  blest ! 

Yet  can,  dear  maid,  Religion  charm 
Death  of  its  sting,  despair  disarm: 

TO  THAT  RESOURCE  APPLY. 
RELIGION  calms  the  pangs  of  grief, 
In  HER  alone  we  find  relief, 

When  all  we  value  die. 

But  turn,  oh,  turn  your  weeping  eyes 
To  where  her  lovely  infant  lies 

That  claims  a  mother's  care  ! 
A  mother's  care  she'll  never  know, 
But  Stella  will  that  love  bestow, 

And  guard  her  infant  years. 

Sweet,  smiling  babe  !     Oh,  may  thy  brer.st 
With  peace  and  harmony  be  blest ! 
And  may  thy  Friend,  thy  parent  see 
Thy  mother's  graces  bloom  in  thee, 
And  all  HER  virtues  share.* 


*  This  prayer  was  abundantly  granted.  The  child,  who  survived,  became,  some- 
where I  suppose  about  the  year  1800,  the  wife  of  Mr.  Geor;e  Willing,  and  lived  till 
the  year  1852,  I  think;  honored  and  beloved  by  as  many  as  ever  knew  her.-  -H.W.  S. 


64  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \  l'/S2 

Not  long  after  this  event,  on  the  30th  of  May,  1782,  died  Dr. 
Smith's  own  relative — his  father-in-law — William  Moore,  Esq.,  of 
Moore  Hall,  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania.  I  have  spoken  of 
him,  and  described  some  incidents  in  his  life,  in  my  former  vol- 
ume.* He  belonged  to  a  class  of  men  in  Pennsylvania  who  con- 
stituted the  most  thorough  gentry  that  the  Province  or  State  ever 
had;  but  whose  fame,  and  indeed  whose  very  names,  have  almost 
wholly  disappeared  from  its  popular  history.  Their  biographies, 
however,  have  been  written — written  only,  however,  in  that  kind 
of  ink  called  "  invisible."  It  is  an  ink  not  more  legible  than  water 
when  first  put  to  paper.  It  lasts,  however;  and  when  that  sort  of 
fluid,  which  gave  at  once  its  full  black  force  to  the  eye,  has  grown 
dim  and  finally  faded  quite  away,  it  will,  I  think,  grow  moie  and 
more  bright  and  strong,  and  present  a  history  full  of  interest.  I 
venture  to  offer,  in  an  Appendix, f  the  embryo  of  a  chapter  to 
whomsoever  shall  be  the  future  collector  of  these  annals  of  our 
ancient  gentility. 

In  April,  1782,  a  third  Convention  of  the  Church  in  Maryland 
was  held.  This  one  was  held  in  Baltimore.  We  do  not  learn — 
there  not  having  been  a  journal — who  were  present.  We  know 
only  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  West,  of  St.  Paul's,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  John 
Andrews,  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.  John's,  Baltimore  county,  a  cler- 
gyman well  known  of  former  days  in  Pennsylvania,  were  added  to 
the  number  before  present.  The  presence  of  Mr.  Andrews,  how- 
ever, shows  that  it  must  have  been  after  his  return  to  Maryland, 
in  April  of  1782,  from  Pennsylvania.  From  his  general  activity 
in  affairs  of  the  Church,  and  especially  from  his  capacity  in  its 
councils,  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  Dr.  Smith  was  present.  If  so, 
he  probably  presided. 

Such  had  been  the  success  of  Dr.  Smith  in  the  charge  of  the 
Kent  County  School,  at  Chestertown,  that  there  were  now  one 
hundred  and  forty  students,  with  prospects  of  increase.  The  vis- 
itors, therefore,  asked  the  Legislature  that  the  School  might  be 
incorporated  a  College.  This  was  granted,  and  the  name  given 
it  of  Washington  College,  at  the  April  session,  in  honorable  and 
perpetual  memory  of  his  Excellency  the  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Army. 

*  See  pages  168-174,  *94>  574>  n-  t  See  Appendix,  Noi  II. 


1/82]  REV.    WILLIAM    SMITH,   D.  D.  65 

The  College  was  soon  organized,  with  Dr.  Smith  as  President; 
Colin  Ferguson,  A.  M.,  Vice-President;  Samuel  Armer,  A.  M., 
Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Logic ;  together  with  two 
Tutors,  a  French  teacher  and  others ;  one  of  whom  was  Mr.  Coudon, 
the  former  head  of  the  school.  Two  of  these  gentlemen,  Mr.  Cou- 
don and  Mr.  Ferguson,  immediately  became  lay  readers  in  vacant 
parishes,  and  in  due  time,  with  a  third,  entered  into  Holy  Orders. 

It  was  still  a  time  of  revolution,  of  desolating  war.  The  popula- 
tion of  the  State  had  decreased  80,000.  Money  had  become  ex- 
ceedingly scarce,  .£200,000  only  being  the  estimated  amount  in 
circulation  in  the  State;  yet  on  the  Eastern  Shore  £"10,300  were 
contributed  for  the  College,  and  a  brick  building  had  been  erected 
for  it,  160  feet  long  and  three  and  a  half  stories  high,  capable  of 
containing  200  students.  The  names  of  its  trustees  showed  the 
high  standard  it  aspired  to.  General  Washington  headed  the  list. 
and  then  follow  those  of  the  Hon.  John  Henry,  the  Hon.  Samuel 
Chase,  Governor  Paca,  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Rev.  Samuel  Keene,  Rev. 
William  Thomson,  Robert  Goldsborough,  William  Perry,  Nichol- 
son, Scott,  Bordlcy,  Perkins,  Gale,  and  seven  others,  all  of  whom 
were  churchmen,  prominent  and  leading  men,  liberal  donors  to  its 
funds,  and  pledged  to  its  interests. 

In  our  next  chapter  we  give  a  more  particular  account  of  this 
College. 


CHAPTER    XLIIL 


Dr.  Smith's  account  of  Washington  College — Address  to  the  Inhabitants 
of  Maryland  in  regard  to  the  College — List  of  the  Subscriptions — 
Dr.  Smith  and  Peregrin  Lethbury  to  the  Assembly  of  Maryland — 
Address  of  the  Visitors  to  the  Assembly — Dr.  Smith  in  behalf  of  the 
Visitors  to  General  Washington — General  Washington  to  Dr.  Smith  in 
reply' — Proceedings  of  the  Assembly*  of  Maryland. 

The  following  account  of  the  College  is  from  the  pen  of  Dr. 
Smith.  We  append  to  the  account  such  documents  and  letters 
as  assist  in  giving  a  true  impression  of  an  institution  founded 
under  circumstances,  as  will  be  seen  from  what  we  have  stated  at 
the  close  of  our  last  chapter,  of  a  most  unusual  kind. 

Dr.  Smith's  Account,  etc. 

In  that  extent  of  territory  which,  through  the  Providence  of  God,  is 

S 


66  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \M%2 

now  the  sovereign  Domain  of  the  United  States  of  America,  an 
attentive  observer  cannot  but  behold  the  foundations  of  an  Empire 
laid,  which  promises  to  enlarge  itself  to  vast  dimensions,  and  to  become 
the  happy  means  of  diffusing  Knowledge,  Liberty  and  Happiness,  through 
every  other  part  of  this  American  continent. 

In  a  commercial  view,  it  is  almost  needless  to  mention  the  great  and 
growing  importance  of  these  states;  on  account  of  their  rich  variety  of 
soil  and  produce,  their  length  of  sea-coast  and  other  conveniences  of 
navigation,  both  internal  and  external.  From  this  variety  springs  like- 
wise one  of  the  first  of  earthly  blessings — a  blessing,  perhaps,  not  known 
in  an  equal  degree  by  any  other  people,  living  in  the  same  commu- 
nity or  fcederal  union,  throughout  the  globe — We  have  the  staff  of  life 
— Bread  in  abundance,  not  only  for  ourselves,  and  the  immense  num- 
ber of  industrious  settlers,  constantly  flowing  in  among  us  from  different 
parts  of  the  old  world  ;  but  likewise  for  exportation  to  supply  the  wants 
of  others,  and  to  multiply  the  sources  and  channels  of  our  trade.  Nor 
is  tliere  a  probability,  under  the  favour  of  Heaven,  and  a  due  exertion 
of  our  skill  and  industry  (as  the  experience  of  near  two  hundred  years 
can  tell  us)  that  we  shall  ever  suffer,  through  scarcity  or  want.  For,  in 
such  an  extended  country,  and  with  such  variety  of  soil  and  climate,  if 
the  productions  of  one  kind,  or  of  one  part  of  the  country  should  fail, 
there  will  remain  a  sufficiency  of  the  other  kinds,  and  those  the  far 
greater  part,  unless  (thro'  the  direction  of  Providence  for  its  own  wise 
purposes)  a  revolution  of  seasons  should  take  place,  whereof  neither 
past  experience  or  memory  can  suggest  any  example  or  precedent. 

Nor  are  the  soil  and  climate  thus  favourable  to  the  productions  of  the 
earth  only ;  but  likewise  to  all  the  best  powers,  both  of  body  and  mind, 
in  the  human  species ;  nursing  up  a  race  of  bold  and  hardy  men  ;  who 
in  the  vindication  and  establishment  of  their  native  rights  and  inde- 
pendence, have  given  the  most  illustrious  proofs  of  their  wisdom,  valour 
and  magnanimity  during  a  long  and  arduous  contest  with  one  of  the 
most  powerful  nations  upon  earth.  And  with  the  like  exertions  of 
virtue  and  public  spirit,  looking  up  to  God  as  our  protector  and  Guide, 
we  need  have  but  little  to  fear  from  any  future  wars  of  the  old  world  or 
the  new — should  war,  in  ages  hence,  continue  to  be  the  unchristian 
mode  of  arbitrating  the  differences  of  Christian  nations  ! 

But,  we  may  trust,  the  time  is  not  distant  when  "Violence  shall  no 
more  be  heard  upon  earth ;  when  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against 
nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  As  a  prelude  to 
that  happy  period,  which  (we  are  assured)  shall  yet  come,  may  not  these 
American  States,  even  now,  "  beat  their  swords  into  plough-shares,  and 
their  spears  into  pruning-hooks?"  Remote  as  we  are  in  situation,  may 
we  not  keep  ourselves  alike  remote  in  our  inclination,  from  the  intrigues, 
the  ambition  and  the  quarrels  of  the  other  powers  of  the  world  ;  yielding 
as  great  a  proof  of  moderation  in  peace  as  of  magnanimity  in  war? 


I782]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  67 

The  idea  is  truly  animating,  and  in  the  hope  of  its  being  realized,  a 
friend  to  mankind  cannot  but  adore  that  Providence  which  (in  portion- 
ing out  the  countries  of  the  new  world  among  the  nations  of  the  old) 
gave  that  part  of  America,  which  seems  ordained  to  preheminence  of 
improvement  above  the  rest,  to  an  enlightened  and  civilized  people — 
professing  themselves  the  votaries  of  KNOWLEDGE  and  freedom  in  their 
purest  and  most  improved  state.  For  however  flattering  it  may  be  to 
consider  the  growth  of  these  rising  States  as  tending  to  increase  the 
wealth  and  commerce  of  the  world  ;  they  are  to  be  considered  in  ano- 
ther more  serious  view,  as  ordained  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  HUMANITY. 
In  that  view  the  great  interests  of  civil  liberty,  the  parent  of  every 
other  social  blessing,  will  not  be  forgotten;  but  every  true  citizen  of 
the  States  will  consider  himself  as  a  chosen  instrument  for  supporting 
her  cause  in  the  new  world,  at  a  time  when  drooping  or  decaying  in  the 
old ;  and  will  accordingly  rejoice  to  water  the  tender  plant  that  hath 
taken  root  among  us,  and  to  rear  and  shelter  it  from  the  storm,  till  it 
shoot  up  into  a  great  tree,  "sending  forth  its  boughs  unto  the  ocean, 
and  its  branches  to  the  utmost  rivers."  But  in  this  great  work,  we  are 
not  to  trust  to  the  most  successful  struggles  either  against  foreign  or 
domestic  enemies,  nor  yet  to  the  best  constituted  forms  of  government 
for  the  preservation  of  our  civil  or  religious  rights.  We  must  strive  to 
maintain  our  own  virtue — We  must  avoid  the  snares  of  luxury,  venality 
and  corruption  among  ourselves.  We  must  regard  the  great  concerns 
of  religion  and  another  world.  We  must  attend  to  the  rising  genera- 
tion. The  souls  of  our  youth  must  be  nursed  up  to  the  love  of  liberty 
and  knowledge;  and  their  bosoms  warmed  with  a  sacred  and  enlight- 
ened zeal  for  everything  that  can  bless  or  dignify  their  species. 

In  short,  lasting  provisions  must  be  made  by  good  education,  for 
training  up  a  succession  of  Patriots,  Lawgivers,  Sages  and  Divines;  for 
liberty  will  not  deign  to  dwell,  but  where  her  fair  companion  knowl- 
edge flourishes  by  her  side  ;  nor  can  government  be  duly  administered 
but  where  the  principles  of  Religion,  Justice,  Virtue,  Sobriety,  and 
Obedience  for  conscience-sake,  are  upheld. 

Every  well-regulated  Seminary  of  Learning,  therefore,  that  promises 
to  exalt  the  genius  of  our  country,  and  to  become  the  means  of  diffusing 
useful  knowledge  still  further  and  wider  over  this  great  continent, 
should  be  an  object  of  general  regard,  wheresoever  it  is  founded  ;  for 
in  this  respect,  we  have  but  one  common  interest  to  pursue. 

It  is  hoped,  then,  that  we  may  now  have  leave  to  mention  "Wash- 
ington-College in  the  State  of  Maryland,"  as  an  institution  of  this 
kind,  well  worthy  of  the  encouragement  of  the  public  in  its  present 
infant-state,  and  more  especially  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula  for 
whose  more  immediate  advantage  it  is  founded. 

Altho'  some  considerable  provision  had  been  made  by  former  Legisla- 


6S  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  XM^ 

tures  of  Maryland  for  the  rudiments  of  learning  in  county  schools,  yet 
the  State  had  been  long  without  any  public  seminary  of  universal  learn- 
ing for  the  benefit  of  youth,  as  is  set  forth  more  at  large  in  the  act  for 
founding  this  College  ;  a  copy  of  which  follows,  viz. : 

AN  ACT  FOR  FOUNDING  A  COLLEGE  AT  CHESTER,  IN 
MARYLAND.* 

Whereas  Institutions  for  the  liberal  education  of  youth  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  virtue,  knowledge,  and  useful  literature,  are  of  the  highest 
benefit  to  society,  in  order  to  raise  up  and  perpetuate  a  succession  of 
able  and  honest  men  for  discharging  the  various  offices  and  duties  of 
the  community,  both  civil  and  religious,  with  usefulness  and  reputation ; 
and  such  institutions  of  learning  have  accordingly  merited  and  received 
the  attention  and  encouragement  of  the  wisest  and  best  regulated  States. 

And  Whereas  former  legislatures  of  this  State  have,  according  to 
their  best  abilities,  laid  a  considerable  foundation  in  this  good  work,  in 
sundry  laws  for  the  establishment  and  encouragement  of  county  schools, 
for  the  study  of  "  Latin,  Greek,  Writing,  and  the  like;  "  intending,  as 
their  future  circumstances  might  permit,  to  engraft  or  raise,  on  the 
foundation  of  said  schools,  more  extensive  seminaries  of  learning,  by 
erecting  one  or  more  Colleges  or  places  of  universal  study,  not  only  in 
the  learned  languages,  but  in  philosophy,  divinity,  law,  physic,  and 
other  useful  and  ornamental  arts  and  sciences. 

And  Whereas  this  great  and  laudable  undertaking  hath  been  retarded 
by  sundry  incidents  of  a  public  nature,  but  chiefly  by  the  great  difficulty 
of  fixing  a  situation  on  either  shore  of  this  State,  for  a  seminary  of 
universal  learning,  which  might  be  of  equal  benefit  and  convenience  to 
the  youth  of  both  shores  ;  and  it  having  been  represented  to  this  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  that  it  would  probably  tend  most  to  the  immediate 
advancement  of  literature  in  this  State,  if  the  inhabitants  of  each  shore 
should  be  left  to  consult  their  own  convenience,  in  founding  and  freely 
endowing  a  College  or  seminary  of  general  learning  each  for  themselves, 
under  the  sanction  of  law;  which  two  Colleges  or  seminaries,  if  thought 
most  conducive  to  the  advancement  of  learning,  religion  and  good 
government,  may  afterwards,  by  common  consent,  when  duly  founded 
and  endowed,  be  united  under  one  supreme  legislative  and  visitatorial 
jurisdiction,  as  distinct  branches  or  members  of  the  same  State 
University,  notwithstanding  their  distance  of  situation. 

And  Whereas  Joseph  Nicholson,  James  Anderson,  John  Scott, 
William  Bordley,  and  Peregrine  Lethbury,  Esquires,  William  Smith, 
Doctor  in  Divinity,  and  Benjamin  Chambers,  Esquire,  the  present 
Visitors  of  Kent  county  school,  in  the  town  of  Chester,  have  represented 

*  The  important  features  of  this  Statute  were  no  doubt  suggested  by  Dr.  Smith;  and 
probably  its  exact  language. — II.  W.  S. 


I782]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  69 

to  this  General  Assembly,  "That  the  said  school  hath  of  late  increased 
greatly  by  an  accession  of  students  and  scholars,  from  various  parts  of 
the  Eastern  Shore  of  this  State,  and  the  neighbouring  Delaware  State; 
there  being  now  about  one  hundred  and  forty  students  and  scholars  in 
the  said  school,  and  the  number  expected  soon  to  increase  to  at  least  two 
hundred, — and  that  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  English,  French, 
Writing,  merchants'  accounts,  and  the  different  branches  of  Mathema- 
tics are  taught  in  the  same,  under  a  sufficient  number  of  able  and 
approved  Masters ;  that  sundry  of  the  students  are  preparing,  and 
desirous,  to  enter  upon  a  course  of  philosophy,  and  must  repair  to  some 
other  State,  at  a  very  grievous  and  inconvenient  expence,  to  finish  their 
education,  unless  they,  the  said  Visitors,  are  enabled  to  enlarge  the  plan 
of  the  said  school,  by  engrafting  thereon,  a  system  of  liberal  education 
in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  providing  necessary  books  and  apparatus, 
with  an  additional  number  of  Masters  and  Professors."  And  the  said 
Visitors  have  further  expressed  their  assurance,  that  if  they  were  made 
capable  in  law  of  erecting  the  said  school  into  a  College  or  general 
seminary  of  learning,  for  the  Eastern  Shore  or  Peninsula  between  the 
bays  of  Chesapeake  and  Delaware,  (maintaining  the  original  design  of 
the  said  school,  as  a  foundation  not  to  be  violated)  very  considerable 
sums  could  be  raised  in  a  few  years  within  the  said  Peninsula,  by  free 
and  voluntary  contributions,  for  the  establishment  and  support  of  such 
seminary.  And  have  accordingly  prayed,  that  a  law  may  be  passed  to 
enable  them,  the  said  Visitors,  to  enlarge  and  improve  the  said  school 
into  a  College,  or  place  of  universal  learning,  with  the  usual  privileges. 

Now  this  General  Assembly  taking  the  said  petition  into  their  serious 
consideration,  and  being  desirous  to  encourage  and  promote  knowledge 
within  this  State,  have  agreed  to  enact,  and  be  it  enacted  by  the 
General  Assembly  of  Maryland,  That  the  said  Joseph  Nicholson,  James 
Anderson,  John  Scott,  William  Bordley,  Peregrine  Lethbury,  William 
Smith,  and  Benjamin  Chambers,  the  present  Visitors  of  Kent  county 
school,  and  their  successors,  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  erect 
the  said  school  into  a  College  or  Seminary  of  universal  learning,  and  to 
increase  the  number  of  Visitors  and  Governors  thereof  to  twenty-four, 
in  manner  following ;  that  is  to  say, 

First.  The  said  Visitors  of  Kent  county  school,  and  their  suc- 
cessors, for  and  during  the  term  of  five  years  next  after  the  passing 
of  this  act,  are  hereby  empowered  and  made  capable  to  receive  con- 
tributions and  subscriptions  for  the  said  intended  College  or  Seminary 
of  universal  learning,  of  any  person  or  persons  who  may  be  willing  to 
promote  so  good  a  design  ;  and  in  case  any  number  or  denomination 
of  contributors  in  any  county  of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  this  State,  or  of 
the  Peninsula  aforesaid,  in  the  neighbouring  States,  shall  subscribe  and 
engage  to  pay  towards  the  founding  and  supporting  the  said  intended 


/O  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1782 

College,  any  sum  not  less  than  ^500  current  money,  payable  in  Spanish 
milled  dollars,  or  the  value  thereof,  as  the  same  may  be  at  the  times 
of  payment,  in  good  merchantable  wheat  or  tobacco,  the  said  Visitors 
and  their  successors,  may  covenant  and  agree  with  such  subscribers  and 
contributors,  that  there  shall  be  one  Visitor  and  Governor  of  the  said 
College,  chosen  for  ever  out  of  such  county,  for  every  ^500  of  specie 
so  subscribed  and  paid,  or  secured  to  be  paid,  towards  founding  and 
supporting  the  said  College,  and  that  the  first  election  of  every  such 
county  Visitor  and  Governor  of  the  said  College,  shall  be  made  by  the 
subscribers  and  contributors  in  the  county,  within  three  months  after 
the  sum  of  ^500,  or  the  value  thereof,  shall  be  subscribed  and  paid,  or 
secured  to  be  paid  as  aforesaid ;  and  due  notice  of  the  time  and  place 
of  election  shall  be  given  to  the  subscribers  and  contributors  in  every 
county,  in  such  form  and  manner  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the 
Visitors  of  Kent  county  school,  and  set  forth  in  the  preamble  of  the 
subscription  papers,  which  the  said  Visitors  shall  send  into  the  several 
counties  for  obtaining  subscriptions  towards  founding  and  a  supporting 
the  said  College. 

Secondly.  If  the  Visitors  of  any  county  school  on  the  said  Eastern 
Shore,  for  the  more  effectual  advancement  of  useful  knowledge,  and  the 
better  promoting  the  good  purposes  for  which  such  county  schools  were 
originally  founded,  shall  be  desirous  to  engraft  and  consolidate  the 
funds  and  estate  of  such  county  school,  or  any  part  or  parts  of  the  same 
with  the  funds  and  estate  of  the  said  intended  College,  the  Visitors  of 
Kent  county  school,  for  and  during  the  term  of  five  years  next  after 
passing  this  act,  (unless  the  said  College  is  sooner  established  agreeably 
to  the  tenor  hereof)  and  the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the  College,  at 
any  time  after  the  same  shall  be  so  established,  shall  have  full  power 
and  authority  to  treat  and  agree  with  the  Visitors  of  such  county  school, 
and  to  allow  one  Visitor  and  Governor  of  the  College,  to  be  for  ever 
chosen  from  among  the  inhabitants  of  such  county,  for  every  ^500 
which  any  such  county  schools  may  contribute  towards  founding  and 
supporting  the  said  College,  the  first  choice  to  be  in  the  Visitors  of  such 
county  school ;  or  in  consideration  of  the  said  ^500  contribution,  or 
of  any  sum  or  estate  of  greater  or  less  value,  that  may  be  thus  given  by 
any  county  school,  towards  the  said  College ;  any  other  privileges  and 
advantages,  in  respect  to  the  education  of  the  youth  of  such  county 
in  the  College,  may  be  fixed  and  agreed  upon,  as  shall  be  judged 
reasonable  between  the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the  College,  and  the 
Visitors  of  such  county  school,  instead  of  fixing  any  Visitor  and  Gov- 
ernor to*  be  for  ever  chosen  from  the  said  county.  And  all  contracts 
and  agreements  truly  and  fairly  made  for  founding  and  supporting  the 
said  College  as  above  set  forth,  shall  be  good  and  effectual  in  law, 
according  to  the  plain  intent,  and  the  true  and  legal  construction  of  the 


1782]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  J I 

same  ;  Provided  always,  That  the  whole  number  of  Visitors  and  Gov- 
ernors of  the  said  College,  shall  never  be  more  than  twenty-four  at  one 
time,  nor  under  seventeen  ;  and  that  not  less  than  seven  of  them  shall 
have  their  usual  residence  in  Kent  county,  and  within  seven  miles  of 
the  town  of  Chester,  aforesaid. 

Thirdly.  When  any  of  the  first  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the  said 
College  chosen  as  aforesaid  on  the  part  of  any  county,  or  any  of  the 
Visitors  and  Governors  in  general,  shall  die,  or  remove  out  of  the 
county  for  which  he  was  chosen,  or  absent  himself  from  four  succeeding 
quarterly  meetings,  without  such  excuse  or  plea  of  necessary  absence  as 
shall  be  deemed  reasonable  by  a  legal  and  just  quorum  of  the  said 
Visitors  and  Governors,  duly  assembled  at  a  quarterly  visitation  of  the 
said  College,  such  quorum  so  assembled,  shall  proceed  by  a  new  election 
to  fill  up  the  seat  and  place  of  such  deceased,  removed  or  absenting 
member;  having  special  regard  that  in  the  room  of  a  deceased,  removed 
or  absenting  Visitor  and  Governor,  from  any  particular  county,  another 
of  the  same  county  be  always  chosen  in  his  room  and  stead. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  when  ten  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the 
said  intended  College  shall  be  chosen  as  aforesaid,  in  addition  to  the 
seven  Visitors  of  Kent  county  school  for  the  time  being,  and  when 
the  said  seventeen  Visitors  and  Governors  shall,  by  an  instrument  of 
writing  under  their  hands,  to  the  General  Assembly  of  this  State, 
directed  and  duly  delivered,  declare,  that  they  are  willing  and  desirous 
to  take  upon  them,  and  to  discharge,  the  trust  of  Visitors  and  Gover- 
nors of  the  said  intended  College,  and  that  an  estate,  or  sum  and  sums 
of  money,  not  less  than  ^5000  current  money,  or  the  just  value 
thereof  (including  the  estate  of  the  said  Kent  county  school)  is  in  their 
hands,  or  so  secured  to  be  paid  to  them  that  they  will  answer  for  the 
value  thereof,  and  the  application  of  the  same  towards  founding, 
endowing,  and  supporting  the  said  intended  College,  according  to  their 
best  judgment,  and  the  tenor  of  this  act ;  Provided  always,  That  such 
instrument  of  writing  be  lodged  with  the  General  Assembly  as  afore- 
said, within  five  years  after  the  passing  of  this  act ;  that  then  and  in 
such  case,  the  said  seventeen  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  such  other 
person  and  persons  as  they  shall  choose  to  make  up  and  perpetuate  the 
number  of  twenty-four,  agreeable  to  the  tenor  hereof,  shall  be,  and  are 
hereby  declared  to  be,  one  community,  corpo-ration  and  body  politic, 
to  have  continuance  forever,  by  the  name  of  "The  Visitors  and  Gov- 
ernors of  Washington  College,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,"  in  honour- 
able and  perpetual  memory  of  his  excellency  General  Washington,  the 
illustrious  and  virtuous  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  by  the  same  name  they  shall  have  perpetual  succession  ; 
provided  nevertheless,  that  seventeen  of  the  said  Visitors  and  Gover- 
nors, shall  always  be  residents  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  this  State,  but 


72  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l7^>2 

that  the  seven  additional  Visitors  and  Governors  (to  make  up  and 
perpetuate  the  number  of  twenty-four)  may  be  chosen  from  this,  or  any 
part  of  the  adjacent  States,  if  they  are  such  persons  as  can  reasonably 
undertake  to  attend  the  quarterly  visitations,  and  are  thought  capable, 
by  their  particular  learning,  weight  and  character,  to  advance  the 
interest  and  reputation  of  the  said  Seminary. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  their 
successors,  by  the  same  name,  shall  be  able  and  capable  in  law,  to  pur- 
chase, have  and  enjoy  to  them  and  their  successors  in  fee,  or  for  any 
other  lesser  estate  or  estates,  any  lands,  tenements,  rents,  annuities, 
pensions  or  other  hereditaments,  within  this  State,  by  the  gift,  grant, 
bargain,  sale,  alienation,  enfeoffment,  release,  confirmation  or  devise 
of  any  person  or  persons,  bodies  politic  or  corporate,  capable  to  make 
the  same ;  and  such  lands,  tenements,  rents,  annuities,  pensions  or 
other  hereditaments,  or  any  lesser  estates,  rights  or  interests  of  or  in  the 
same,  (excepting  the  estate  of  the  said  Kent  county  school)  at  their 
pleasure  to  grant,  alien,  sell  and  transfer,  in  such  manner  and  form,  as 
they  shall  think  meet  and  convenient  for  the  furtherance  of  the  said 
College  ;  and  also  that  they  may  take  and  receive  any  sum  or  sums  of 
money,  and  any  kind,  manner  or  portion  of  goods  and  chattels  that 
shall  be  given,  sold  or  bequeathed  to  them,  by  any  person  or  persons, 
bodies  politic  or  corporate,  capable  ■  to  make  a  gift,  sale  or  bequest 
thereof,  and  employ  the  same  towards  erecting,  setting  up  and  main- 
taining the  said  College,  in  such  manner  as  they  shall  judge  most  neces- 
sary and  convenient  for  the  instruction,  improvement  and  education  of 
youth,  in  the  vernacular  and  learned  languages,  and  generally  in  any 
kind  of  literature,  arts  and  sciences,  which  they  shall  think  proper  to  be 
taught  for  training  up  good,  useful  and  accomplished  men,  for  the  ser- 
vice of  their  country  in  Church  and  State;  and  youth  of  all  religious 
denominations  and  persuasions,  shall  be  freely  and  liberally  admitted  to 
equal  privileges  and  advantages  of  education,  and  to  all  the  literary 
honors  of  the  College,  according  to  their  merit,  and  the  standing  rules 
of  the  Seminary,  without  requiring  or  enforcing  any  religious  or  civil 
test  whatsoever  upon  any  student,  scholar  or  member  of  the  said  Col- 
lege, other  than  such  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  State  as  the  laws  thereof 
may  require  of  the  Visitors,  Governors,  Masters,  Professors  and  Teach- 
ers in  schools  and  seminaries  of  learning  in  general  ;  nor  shall  any 
preference  be  given  in  the  choice  of  any  Visitor  and  Governor  of  the 
said  College,  or  of  the  Principal,  Vice-Principal  or  any  Professor  or 
Master,  on  account  of  his  religious  persuasion,  but  merely  on  account 
of  his  literary  and  other  necessary  qualifications  to  fill  the  place  for 
which  he  is  chosen. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  their 
successors,  by  the  name  aforesaid,  shall  be  able  in  law,  to  sue  and  be 


1782]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  73 

sued,  plead  and  be  impleaded,  in  any  court  or  courts,  before  any  judge, 
judges  or  justices  within  this  State  and  elsewhere,  in  all  and  all  manner 
of  suits,  complaints,  pleas,  causes,  matters  and  demands,  of  whatsoever 
kind,  nature  or  form  they  be  ;  and  all  and  every  other  matter  and  thing 
therein  to  do  in  as  full  and  effectual  a  manner  as  any  other  person  or 
as,  bodies  politic  or  corporate  within  this  State,  or  any  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  in  like  cases,  may  or  can  do. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  their 
successors,  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  have,  make,  and  use 
one  common  and  public  seal,  and  likewise  one  privy  seal,  with  such 
devices  and  inscriptions  as  they  shall  think  proper,  and  to  ascertain,  fix 
and  regulate  the  uses  of  both  seals  by  their  own  laws,  and  the  same  seals, 
or  either  of  them,  to  change,  break,  alter,  and  renew  at  their  pleasure. 

And  be  it  exacted,  That  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  their 
successors,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter  forever,  shall 
have  full  power  and  authority  to  constitute  and  appoint,  in  such  manner 
as  they  shall  think  best  and  most  convenient,  a  Principal  and  Vice- 
Principal  of  the  said  College,  and  Professors,  with  proper  Tutors  and 
Assistants,  for  instructing  the  students  and  scholars  of  the  said  Seminary, 
in  all  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences,  and  in  the  ancient  and  modern 
tongues  and  languages ;  who  shall  be  severally  styled  Professors  of  such 
arts,  sciences,  languages,  or  tongues  as  they  shall  be  nominated  and 
appointed  for,  according  to  each  particular  nomination  and  appoint- 
ment ;  and  the  said  Principal,  Vice-Principal,  and  Professors  so  con- 
stituted and  appointed  from  time  to  time,  shall  be  known  and  distin- 
guished forever  as  one  learned  body  or  faculty,  by  the  name  of  "The 
Principal,  Vice-Principal  and  Professors  of  Washington  College,  in  the 
State  of  Maryland,"  and  by  that  name  shall  be  capable  of  exercising 
such  powers  and  authorities  as  the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the  said 
College,  and  their  successors,  shall,  by  their  ordinances,  think  necessary 
to  delegate  to  them  for  the  instruction,  discipline  and  government  of 
the  said  Seminary,  and  of  all  the  students,  scholars,  ministers  and  ser- 
vants belonging  to  the  same;  and  the  said  Principal  and  Vice-Principal, 
Professors,  students,  scholars,  and  such  necessary  ministers  and  servants 
as  give  constant  attendance  upon  the  business  of  the  College,  shall  be 
exempted  from  all  rates  and  taxes  on  their  salaries,  and  from  all  military 
duties,  except  in  the  case  of  an  actual  invasion  of  the  State,  and  when 
general  military  law  is  declared. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  clear  yearly  value  of  the  messuages, 
houses,  lands,  tenements,  rents,  annuities  or  other  hereditaments  and 
real  estate  of  the  said  College  and  corporation,  shall  not  exceed  six 
thousand  pounds  current  money,  to  be  reckoned  in  Spanish  milled  dol- 
lars, at  the  present  rate  and  weight ;  and  all  gifts,  grants  and  bequests 
to  the  said   College  and   corporation,  after  the   yearly  value  of  their 


74  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1782 

estates  shall  amount  to  six  thousand  pounds  as  aforesaid,  and  all  bar- 
gains and  purchases  to  be  made  by  the  said  corporation,  which  may 
increase  the  yearly  value  of  said  estate,  above  or  beyond  the  sum 
aforesaid,  shall  be  absolutely  void  and  of  none  effect. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  their 
successors,  shall  meet  at  least  four  times  in  every  year,  in  stated  quar- 
terly meetings,  to  be  appointed  by  their  own  ordinances,  and  at  such 
other  times  as  by  their  said  ordinances  they  may  direct,  in  order  to 
examine  the  progress  of  the  students  and  scholars  in  literature,  to  hear 
and  determine  on  all  complaints  and  appeals,  and  upon  all  matters 
touching  the  discipline  of  the  Seminary,  and  the  good  and  wholesome 
execution  of  their  ordinances;  in  all  which  examinations,  meetings  and 
determinations,  such  number  of  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  duly 
met,  (provided  they  be  not  less  than  seven)  shall  be  a  quorum,  as  the 
fundamental  ordinances  at  first,  or  any  time  afterwards  duly  enacted  by 
a  majority  of  the  whole  Visitors,  shall  fix  and  determine. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  a  majority  of  the  said  Visitors  and  Gov- 
ernors for  the  time  being,  when  duly  assembled  at  any  quarterly,  or 
other  meeting,  upon  due  notice  given  to  the  whole  body  of  Visitors  and 
Governors,  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  make  fundamental 
ordinances  for  the  government  of  the  said  College,  and  the  instruction 
of  the  youth  as  aforesaid,  and  by  these  ordinances  to  appoint  such  a 
number  of  their  own  body  not  less  than  seven,  as  they  may  think  proper 
to  be  a  quorum  for  transacting  all  general  and  necessary  business  of  the 
said  Seminary,  and  making  temporary  rules  for  the  government  of  the 
same ;  and  also  by  the  said  fundamental  ordinances,  to  delegate  to  the 
Principal,  Vice-Principal  and  Professors,  such  powers  and  authorities  as 
they  may  think  best  for  the  standing  government  of  the  said  Seminary, 
and  the  execution  of  the  ordinances  and  rules  of  the  same  ;  provided 
always,  that  they  be  not  repugnant  to  the  form  of  government,  or  any 
law  of  this  State. 

And  for  animating  and  encouraging  the  students  of  the  said  College 
to  a  laudable  diligence,  industry  and  progress  in  useful  literature  and 
science,  be  it  enacted,  that  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  and  their 
successors,  shall  by  a  written  mandate,  under  their  privy  seal,  and  the 
hand  of  some  one  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors  to  be  chosen  annually 
as  their  President,  according  to  the  ordinance  to  be  made  for  that  pur- 
pose, have  full  power  and  authority  to  direct  the  Principal,  Vice-Princi- 
pal and  Professors,  to  hold  public  commencements,  either  on  stated 
annual  days,  or  occasionally  as  the  future  ordinances  of  the  said  Semi- 
nary may  direct ;  and  at  such  commencements  to  admit  any  of  the 
students  in  the  said  College,  or  any  other  persons  meriting  the  same 
(whose  names  shall  be  severally  inserted  in  the  said  mandate)  to  any 
degree  or  degrees  in  any  of  the  faculties,  arts  and  sciences,  and  liberal 


IjS2]  REV.     WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  75 

professions  to  which  persons  are  usually  admitted  in  other  Colleges  or 
Universities  in  America  or  Europe;  and  it  is  hereby  enacted  that  the 
Principal,  or  in  case  of  his  death  or  absence,  the  Vice-Principal,  and  in 
case  of  the  death  or  absence  of  both,  the  senior  Professor  who  may  be 
present,  shall  make  out  and  sign  with  his  name,  Diplomas  or  certificates 
of  the  admission  to  such  degree  or  degrees,  which  shall  be  sealed  with 
the  public  or  greater  seal  of  the  said  corporation  or  College,  and  deliv- 
ered to  the  graduates  as  honorable  and  perpetual  testimonials  of  such 
admission;  which  diplomas,  if  thought  necessary  for  doing  greater 
honor  to  such  graduates,  shall  also  be  signed  with  the  names  of  the 
different  Professors,  or  as  many  of  them  as  can  conveniently  sign  the 
same  ;  provided  always,  that  no  student  or  students  within  the  said  Col- 
lege, shall  ever  be  admitted  to  any  such  degree  or  degrees,  nor  have 
their  name  inserted  in  any  mandate  for  a  degree,  until  such  student  or 
students  have  been  first  duly  examined  and  thought  worthy  of  the  same, 
at  a  public  examination  of  candidates,  to  be  held  one  whole  month  pre- 
vious to  the  day  of  commencement  in  the  said  College,  by  and  in  the 
preference  of  the  said  Visitors  and  Governors,  or  of  such  quorum  of 
them,  not  less  than  seven,  as  the  ordinances  of  the  College  may 
authorize  for  that  purpose,  and  in  the  presence  of  any  other  persons 
choosing  to  attend  the  same;  and  provided  further,  that  no  person  or 
persons,  excepting  the  students  belonging  to  the  said  Seminary,  shall 
ever  be  admitted  to  any  honorary  or  other  degree  or  degrees  in  the 
same,  unless  thirteen  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors  (of  whom  the  Presi- 
dent shall  be  one)  by  a  mandate  under  their  privy  seal,  and  signed  by 
the  hands  of  the  whole  thirteen,  to  the  Principal,  Vice-Principal  and 
Professors  directed,  have  signified  their  approbation  and  authority  for 
the  particular  admission  of  such  person  to  said  degree  or  degrees. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  Visitors  of  Kent  county  school  may 
set  aside  and  appropriate  ten  acres  of  the  land  belonging  to  the  said 
school,  where  they  shall  think  most  convenient,  for  erecting  necessary 
buildings  for  carrying  on  the  said  College,  and  laying  out  gardens  and 
grounds  for  the  recreation  and  refreshment  of  the  youth,  and  other 
suitable  exercises.  And  the  remainder  of  the  grounds  belonging  to  the 
said  Kent  county  school,  may  and  shall  be  leased  out  by  the  Visitors  of 
the  said  school  for  the  time  being,  and  by  the  Visitors  and  Governors 
of  the  said  College,  after  the  same  shall  be  established,  in  leases  for 
lives,  or  ninety-nine  years,  or  on  any  other  leases  that  may  be  judged 
most  beneficial  for  advancing  the  cause  of  learning,  and  promoting  the 
said  College  agreeable  to  the  original  design  for  which  the  said  Kent 
county  school  was  founded,  and  for  which  the  said  school-lands  were 
purchased. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  the  ordinances  which  shall  be  from  time 
to  time  made  by  the  Visitors  and   Governors  of  the  said  College,  and 


76  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l7^>2 

their  successors,  with  an  account  of  their  other  proceedings,  and  of  the 
management  of  the  estate  and  monies  committed  to  their  trust,  shall, 
when  required,  be  laid  before  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland,  for 
their  inspection  and  examination  ;  but  in  case  at  any  time  hereafter, 
through  oversight  or  otherwise,  through  misapprehensions  and  mistaken 
constructions  of  the  powers,  liberties  and  franchises  in  this  charter  or 
act  of  incorporation  granted  or  intended  to  be  granted,  any  ordinances 
should  be  made  by  the  said  corporation  of  Visitors  and  Governors,  or. 
any  matters  done  and  transacted  by  the  corporation  contrary  to  the 
tenor  thereof,  It  is  enacted,  That  although  all  such  ordinances,  acts 
and  doings,  shall  in  themselves  be  null  and  void;  yet  they 'shall  not, 
however,  in  any  courts  of  law,  or  by  the  General  Assembly,  be  deemed, 
taken,  interpreted  or  adjudged  into  an  avoidance  or  forfeiture  of  this 
charter  and  act  of  incorporation,  but  the  same  shall  be,  and  remain 
unhurt,  inviolate  and  entire  unto  the  said  corporation  of  Visitors  and 
Governors,  in  perpetual  succession  ;  and  all  their  acts  conformable  to 
the  powers,  true  intent  and  meaning  hereof,  shall  be,  and  remain  in 
full  force  and  validity,  the  nullity  and  avoidance  of  such  illegal  acts  to 
the  contrary  in  any  wise  notwithstanding. 

And  be  it  enacted  and  declared,  That  this  charter  and  act  of 
incorporation,  and  every  part  thereof,  shall  be  good  and  available  in  all 
things  in  the  law,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof, 
and  shall  be  construed,  reputed  and  adjudged  in  all  cases  most  favorably 
on  the  behalf,  and  for  the  best  benefit  and  behoof  of  the  said  Visitors 
and  Governors,  and  their  successors,  so  as  most  effectually  to  answer 
the  valuable  ends  of  this  act  of  incorporation,  towards  the  general 
advancement  and  promotion  of  useful  knowledge,  science  and  virtue. 

And  be  it  enacted,  That  no  person  shall  act  as  Visitor  and  Gov- 
ernor, or  as  Principal  or  Vice-Principal,  or  as  Professor  in  the  said 
College,  before  he  shall  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  and  support  to  this 
State  required  by  the  constitution,  or  by  the  laws  of  this  State. 

The  foregoing  Charter  or  Act  of  Inc6rporation  having  duly 
passed  the  General  Assembly,  at  their  Spring-sessions,  1782,  a 
meeting  of  the  seven  Visitors  and  Governors  named  in  it  was 
held,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  their  President,  at  the  request  and 
by  the  appointment  of  the  Board,  undertook  to  visit  the  different 
counties  on  the  Eastern  shore,  in  order  to  open  the  subscriptions 
for  founding  the  Seminary,  agreeably  to  the  tenor  of  the  law. 
On  his  own  horse,  he  went  from  country-seat  to  country-seat,  and 
almost  from  farm  to  farm,  seeking  personally  the  means  of  build- 
ing the  new  seminary.  The  following  was  the  preamble  to  the 
different  subscription-papers : 


1/S2}  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  7/ 

To  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  &c. 

GENTLEMEN  :— By  the  foregoing  Act  for  founding  a  COLLEGE  on  this 
Shore,  an  Opportunity  is  offered,  which  good  and  wise  men  have  long 
wished  for,  of  making  a  provision  for  the  future  education  of  your 
Youth,  in  the  liberal  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  all  the  branches  of  useful 
and  ornamental  Knowledge. 

Colleges  and  Schools  of  general  learning  have,  long  since,  been 
founded  in  most  of  the  Sister-States,  and  the  advantages  which  our 
Youth  have  derived  from  them,  have  been  manifested  in  all  the  late 
and  former  trials  of  the  wisdom,  virtue  and  magnanimity  of  America. 
The  Youth  of  Maryland  have  been  particularly  distinguished  among  the 
rest;  but  have  been  obliged,  at  a  very  grievous  and  unequal  expence,  to 
prepare  themselves  for  public  life  by  repairing,  for  their  education, 
either  to  Great  Britain,  or  to  some  of  the  neighboring  American  States. 

The  inhabitants  of  this  Shore  and  Peninsula,  for  whose  benefit  this 
Foundation  is  more  immediately  designed,  are  descended  from  some  of 
the  most  ancient  families  and  settlers  in  America,  and  would  undoubt- 
edly wish,  by  good  education,  to  support  the  rank  of  their  posterity, 
and  to  give  them  their  full  consequence  in  this  rising  Empire, — Further 
arguments  would  be  needless. 

The  Yisitors  of  Kent  County  School  wish  to  discharge  the  important 
trust  committed  to  them  by  the  foregoing  Act,  with  zeal  and  integrity, 
according  to  their  best  abilities.  The  school  and  valuable  estate  under 
their  care,  want  only  a  little  public  assistance  and  countenance,  to  place 
them  on  a  footing  with  the  most  respectable  Colleges  or  Universities  in 
America,  being  little  inferior  to  any  of  them  in  the  present  number  of 
scholars  and  students. 

The  distance  of  the  town  of  Chester  from  alarms  in  time  of  war,  its 
healthful  situation,  and  convenience  of  accommodation  for  Youth,  have, 
by  general  agreement,  pointed  it  out  as  the  best  place  for  a  Seminary  of 
universal  Learning  on  this  Shore. 

Being  persuaded,  therefore,  that  the  present  opportunity,  which  hath 
been  so  long  desired,  will  be  cheerfully  embraced,  for  founding  a  Col- 
lege on  this  Shore,  under  the  auspicious  name  with  which  the  Legisla- 
ture have  dignified  it ;  We,  the  Visitors  aforesaid,  in  execution  of  the 
trust  and  duties  committed  to  us,  by  the  said  act,  propose  the  following — 

Articles  to  be  mutually  binding  on  the  Visitors  of  Kent  County  School, 
and  the  Subscribers  and  Contributors  towards  founding  and  sup- 
porting "Washington  College,  in  the  State  of  Maryland." 
I.   Every  subscription  shall  be  made  in  specie  of  gold  and  silver,  and 

payable   (as   the  Act  directs)  in  Spanish   milled   Dollars   of  the  usual 

weight,  or  the  value  thereof,  as  the  same  may  be  at  the  times  of  payment, 

in  good  merchantable  Wheat  or  Tobacco. 


78  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/82 

II.  For  the  greater  ease  of  the  Subscribers,  the  payments  shall  be 
made  in  three  equal  parts  ;  one-third  part  on  the  first  Monday  in  Janu- 
ary, 1783;  another  third  part  on  the  first  Monday  in  January,  1784; 
and  the  remaining  third  on  the  first  Monday  in  January,  1785  ;  which 
several  payments  shall  be  made  to  the  Treasurer  of  Kent  County  School, 
till  the  College  is  established  according  to  law,  and  afterwards  to  the 
Treasurer  of  the  College,  as  nominated  by  the  Visitors  and  Governors 
thereof;  and  the  hand-writing  of  every  particular  subscriber  shall  be 
binding  in  law  on  himself,  his  heirs,  executors  and  administrators,  for 
the  sum  subscribed,  or  the  value  thereof,  with  legal  interest,  if  not  paid 
when  due  ;  and  the  receipt  of  the  Treasurer  aforesaid  shall  be  a  sufficient 
discharge  for  all  subscriptions  and  contributions. 

Within  three  months  after  the  sum  of  ^500  ohall  be  subscribed  by 
any  number  of  contributors  or  persons  in  any  county,  or  district  of  a 
county,  in  sums  not  less  than  ^9  or  £$  per  annum  for  three  years,  by 
single  subscribers  or  contributors,  and  the  same  shall  be  notified  by  any 
three  of  the  subscribers  to  the  Visitors  of  Kent  County  School,  accom- 
panied with  an  authentic  list  of  the  subscribers,  the  said  Visitors,  agree- 
able to  the  foregoing  Act,  will  fix  a  convenient  time  and  place  for  such 
subscribers  and  contributors  of  -£g  and  upwards,  to  meet  within  the 
county,  for  electing  one  person  as  a  Visitor  and  Governor  of  the  Col- 
lege for  such  county,  or  district  of  the  county ;  and  will  cause  written 
or  printed  notices  of  the  time  and  place  of  election,  to  be  fixed  up  at  the 
Court-House  and  different  Parish  Churches  within  such  county,  at  least 
ten  days  before  the  day  of  election,  that  all  persons  concerned  may  duly 
attend. 

In  less  than  three  months  the  subscription-papers  were  filled  up 
by  subscriptions  in  the  different  counties  on  the  Eastern  Shore, 
and  on  the  26th  of  November,  1782,  were  delivered  to  the  General 
Assembly,  agreeably  to  the  Charter  or  Incorporating  Act  of  the 
College.     They  were  thus  : 

Subscriptions,  &c. 


His  Excellency  George  Wash- 

£■ 

s. 

d. 

ington,    Esq.,   General    and 

Amount  brought 

up 

192 

17 

10 

Commander  in  Chief  of  the 

Armies  of  the  United  States, 

John  Page 

25 

0 

0 

as  an  Earnest   of  his  Good- 

John Lambert  Wilmer 

30 

0 

0 

will,  Fifty  Guineas                 £8j 

10 

0 

Richard  Graves 

30 

0 

0 

Robert  Buchanan 

20 

0 

0 

Kent  County. 

Thomas  Smyth 

30 

0 

0 

£■ 

s. 

d. 

William  Dunn 

9 

0 

0 

John  Cadwalader                            50 

0 

0 

Simon  Wickes 

9 

0 

0 

William  Slubey                                55 

7 

10 

10 

James  Claypoole 

Amount  carried  forward 

9 

0 

0 

Amount  carried  forward      /"JQ2 

17 

^354 

17 

10 

1/32] 


REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D. 


79 


£■ 

S. 

7. 

/:■ 

s. 

d. 

Amount  brought  over 

354 

17 

10 

Amount  brought  up 

1046 

14 

s 

Thomas  Van  Dyke 

ii 

5 

0 

William  Wilmer 

9 

0 

0 

Horatio  Belt 

9 

0 

0 

Arthur  Miller 

24 

0 

0 

William  Houston 

9 

0 

0 

William  Ringgold,  jun. 

10 

0 

0 

Thomas  Kemp 

9 

0 

0 

Joseph  Wickes 

9 

0 

0 

Robert  Blake 

9 

0 

0 

Simon  Wickes,  jun. 

12 

0 

0 

John  Wickes 

9 

0 

0 

Richard  Hinson 

9 

0 

0 

John  Harragan 

9 

0 

0 

Morgan  Brown 

9 

0 

0 

Joseph  Forman 

3o 

0 

0 

John  Sutton 

9 

0 

0 

Isaac  Perkins 

20 

0 

0 

Richard  Spencer 

15 

0 

0 

William  Bordlcy 

iS 

0 

0 

Charles  Tilden 

16 

0 

0 

Robert  Anderson 

15 

0 

0 

Marmaduke  Tilden,  jun. 

9 

0 

0 

John  Lorrain 

iS 

0 

0 

James  Frisby 

10 

0 

0 

Joseph  Williams 

9 

0 

0 

John  Moore,  jun. 

9 

0 

0 

rhilip  Brooks 

9 

0 

0 

James  Williamson 

9 

0 

0 

Richard  G.  Smyth 

30 

0 

0 

Jere  Nichols 

15 

0 

0 

Joseph  Nicholson 

18 

0 

0 

Richard  Ricaud 

12 

0 

0 

James  Anderson 

3° 

0 

0 

Richard  Miller 

9 

0 

0 

William  Smith 

18 

0 

0 

William  Gale 

10 

0 

0 

Benjamin  Chambers 

18 

0 

0 

Arthur  Bryan 

5 

S 

0 

John  Scott 

18 

0 

0 

Tames  Dunn 

15 

0 

0 

James  M.  Anderson 

9 

0 

0 

James  Hodges 

9 

0 

0 

Barney  Corse 

9 

0 

0 

John  Williamson 

15 

0 

0 

Edward  Wright 

9 

0 

0 

Joseph  Brown 

9 

0 

0 

Simon  Wilmer 

15 

0 

0 

Morgan  I  Iui't 

9 

0 

0 

Edward  Worrel 

9 

0 

0 

Robert  Dunn 

12 

0 

0 

John  S'.urgis 

9 

0 

0 

John  Carvil  Hinson 

9 

0 

0 

Peregrine  Lcthrbary 

9 

0 

0 

Samuel  Gott 

9 

0 

0 

Josias  Ringgold 

IS 

0 

0 

William  Frisby 

9 

0 

0 

John  Bolton 

9 

0 

0 

John  Day 

9 

0 

0 

James  Piper 

9 

0 

0 

William  Maxwell,  jun. 

15 

0 

0 

Anne  Deane 

15 

0 

0 

James  Pearce 

15 

0 

0 

Anthony  Banning 

15 

0 

0 

Isaac  Freeman 

12 

0 

0 

Emory  Sudler 

18 

0 

0 

Nathaniel  Comegys 

12 

0 

0 

St.  Leger  Everett 

10 

0 

0 

Isaac  Spencer 

12 

0 

0 

Charles  Groom 

9 

0 

0 

John  Wall  is  (Morgan'*  Creel 

0  10 

0 

0 

William  Embleton 

10 

0 

0 

John  Brooks 

9 

0 

0 

John  Kenneril 

10 

0 

0 

William  Hanson 

9 

0 

0 

James  Smith 

9 

0 

0 

Malachi  Ambrose 

10 

0 

;> 

Martnaduke  Medford 

11 

5 

0 

Samuel  Davis 

15 

0 

0 

James  M'Clean 

25 

6 

7 

James  Hinson,  jun. 

9 

0 

0 

Luke  Grirhth 

9 

0 

0 

Alexander  Baird 

15 

0 

0 

Rasin  Gale 

9 

0 

0 

John  Gleaves 

10 

0 

0 

Thomas  Smith,  jun. 

18 

0 

0 

William  Geddes 

3° 

0 

0 

John  Blakewr.y 

9 

0 

0 

William  Wilson 

9 

0 

0 

Edward  Scanlan 

9 

0 

0 

Ebenezer  Massy 

9 

0 

0 

Daniel  Matzler 

10 

0 

0 

Thomas  Boyer 

9 

0 

0 

John  Wilson,  jun. 

15 

0 

0 

George  Wilson 

15 

0 

0 

Thomas  Medford 

10 

0 

0 

Robert  Roberts 

9 

0 

0 

Robert  Constable 

10 

0 

0 

Nathaniel  Kennard,  jun 

9 

0 

0 

Robert  Cruckshank 

13 

0 

0 

Marmaduke  Tilden 

IS 

0 

0 

Richard  Lloyd 

20 

0 

0 

James  Lloyd 

15 

0 

0 

Total     Amount    of    Kent  J 
County  at  the  Elections,  V 
October,  1782                   J 

^1599 

19 

5 

Amount  carried  forward  £ 

IO46 

14 

5 

Note. — The  subscriptions,  of  course,  in  pounds,  shillings  and  pence  are  not  sterling 
money,  but  money  of  Maryland. 


8o 


LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE 


[1782 


Amount  brought  up 


Queen  Anne's  County. 

William  Paca 
Edward  Tilghman 
William  Hemsley 
J.  Beale  Bordley 
"Edward  Coursey 
Richard  B.  Carmichael 
Alexander  Lawson 
Robert  Dawson 
Richard  S.  Earle 
Walter  Jackson 
Joseph  Nicholson,  jun. 
C.  J.  Wederstrandt 
James  Earle 
William  Bruff 
S.  Clayton 
Thomas  Wright 
Arthur  Emory,  jun. 
Thos.  Emory  of  Arthur 
Edward  Downes 
William  Hacket 
James  Clayland 
William  Wright 
Turbutt  Wright 
Richard  Emory 
Robert  Wilson 
James  Seth 
Clement  Sewell 
Richard  Tilghman 
William  Ringgold 
Thomas  Marsh  Forman 
J.  W.  Clayton 
William  Thompson 
Charles   Troup,    a    Cert 

for  ^200,  valued  at 
John  Brown 
Samuel  Ridgeway 
James  Bordley 
Jacob  Ringgold 
William  Smyth 
Vachel  Downes 
James  O' Bryan 
John  Fisher 
James  Hacket 
Samuel  Thompson 
John  Thompson 
M.  Hawkins 
Griffin  Fount  Le  Roy 
Robert  Walters 
Joshua  Seney 
Robert  Wright 
James  Kent 
John  Dames 
James  Gould 
Samuel  Seney 
Elijah  Bishop 

Amount  carried  forward  ^990     o     o     Amount  carried  forward  .£235 


£■   s.  d. 
990    o    o 


£. 

s. 

d. 

50 

0 

0 

John  Foreman 

10 

0 

0 

50 

0 

0 

Richard  B.  Lloyd 

5o 

0 

0 

50 
50 

Q 

0 

O 

0 

Total  Amount  of  Queen  "\ 

32 
20 

IO 
O 

0 
0 

Anne's  County   at   the  1    y 
Election  of  two  Visit-  T  ** 

050 

0 

0 

20 

O 

0 

ors,  October,  1782.          ) 

9 

O 

0 

3° 

O 

0 

Talbot  County. 

iS 

O 

0 

£■ 

s. 

d. 

30 

O 

0 

Edward  Floyd 

60 

0 

0 

9 

O 

0 

Robert  Goldsborough,  jun. 

3° 

0 

0 

15 

O 

0 

Howes  Goldsborough 

18 

0 

0 

12 

O 

0 

William  Frazier 

15 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

William  Marsh  Catnip 

9 

0 

0 

32 

10 

0 

John  Roberts 

12 

0 

0 

22 

10 

0 

Richard  Grason 

9 

0 

0 

10 

0 

0 

Peregrine  Tilghman 

20 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Richard  Tilghman,  jun. 

20 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Matthew  Tilghman 

30 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

William  Hindman 

11 

5 

0 

12 

10 

0 

Alexander  M'Callum 

12 

0 

0 

30 

0 

0 

W.  Goldsborough,  jun. 

12 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

William  Tilghman 

20 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

William  Bordley 

17 

10 

0 

10 

0 

0 

Joseph  Bruff 

12 

0 

0 

18 

0 

0 

William  Goldsborough 

35 

0 

0 

18 

0 

0 

Thomas  Gordon 

10 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

James  Hindman 

15 

0 

0 

18 

0 

0 

John  BracL-o 

15 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Samuel  Lloyd  Chamberlaine 

27 

0 

0 

10 

0 

0 

William  Hayward 

21 

0 

0 

ate 

William  Perry 

20 

0 

0 

60 

0 

0 

Rev.  John  Bowie 

15 

0 

0 

IS 

0 

0 

Robert  Lloyd  Nichols 

15 

0 

0 

iS 

0 

0 

Rev.  John  Gordon 

9 

0 

0 

15 

0 

0 

John  Coates 

9 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

John  Troup 

9 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Charles  Gardiner 

9 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Richard  Skinner 

9 

0 

0 

15 

0 

0 

John  Needles 

10 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Isaac  Gilpin 

0 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Charles  Crookshanks 

18 

0 

0 

15 

0 

0 

Nicholas  Cox 

9 

0 

0 

20 

0 

0 

The   Visitors   of   Talbot   free 

9 

0 

0 

School 

400 

0 

0 

18 
20 
13 

0 
0 
0 

0 
0 
0 

Total    Amount    of    Talbot\yQ7I 
County                                j  £>97 

15 

0 

30 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

Dorchester  County. 

9 

0 

0 

£■ 

j. 

d. 

9 

0 

0 

Robert  Goldsborough 

100 

0 

0 

9 

0 

0 

William  Ennalls 

60 

0 

0 

12 

0 

0 

Henry  Ennalls,  jun. 

75 

0 

0 

I732] 


REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D. 


81 


Amount  brought  over 

James  Murray 

Rev.  Samuel  Keene 

Henry  1  looper 

John  Dickinson 

Joseph  1  (affin 

Henry  Ennalls 

John  Stevens 

Wm.  Ennalls  Hooper 

Levin  Kirk  in  an 

Willis  Newton 

James  Shaw 

John  Smoot 

James  Sullivan 

Archibald  l'atison 

Toseph  Richardson 

John  Marshal 

Thomas  Bourke 

Robinson  Stevens 

Henry  Murray 

Henry  Maynadier 

Henry  Waggaman 

Gustavus  Scott 

Bartholomew  Ennalls,  jun. 

James  Gordon 

William  Wheland 

Richard  Stanford 

John  Hooper 

William  E.  Hicks 

Alexander  Smith 

Levin  Travels 

Bartholomew  Ennalls 

Tho.  Ennalls  (Blackiuater) 

George  Bonwill 

John  M.  Anderson 

Robert  Ewing 

Thomas  Jones 

Anne  Muse 

Elizabeth  Ennalls 

John  Goldsborough 

John  Le  Compte 

Moses  Allen 

Pritchet  Willey 

John  Owens 

Anne  Steel 

Levin  Woolford 

Thomas  Lockerman 

Robert  Griffith 

John  Keene 

Arthur  Whiteley 

Stanley  Byus 

James  Steel 


£    s.   J. 
235     o    o 


Somerset  County. 


So 

30 

15 

9 

3° 

9 

9 

9 

15 

9 

20 

20 


30    o 

40    o 
15     o 

9 

9 
is 
36 
15 
12 
22 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 
12 

9 

9 

30 
3= 
20 

15 
1 


o    o 

o     o 


o 

0 

o 

o 
o 

o  o 
o  o 
o     o 


o  o 

o  o 

o  o 

o  o 


o     o 
o     o 


o     o 
o     o 


o     o 
o     o 


£■ 

s. 

d. 

John  Henry 

5° 

0 

0 

Francis  Jenkins  Henry 

9 

0 

0 

Levin  <  Sale 

5° 

0 

0 

Henry  Jackson 

25 

0 

0 

Samuel  King 

20 

0 

0 

John  Denwood 

9 

0 

0 

Nehemiah  King 

37 

0 

0 

Lambert  Ilyland 

9 

0 

0 

John  Dashicll 

9 

0 

0 

R.  Waters 

10 

0 

0 

Ez.  Gillis 

9 

0 

0 

John  Winder 

9 

0 

0 

Thomas  Sloss 

20 

0 

0 

George  Dashiell 

25 

0 

0 

William  Davis  Allen 

>5 

0 

0 

John  Done 

9 

0 

0 

Thomas  Maddux,  jun. 

9 

0 

0 

John  Stewart 

25 

0 

0 

Esme  Bayly 

9 

0 

0 

Henry  Handy 

9 

0 

0 

William  Horsey 

9 

0 

0 

William  M'Biyde 

9 

0 

0 

George  Day  Scott 

20 

0 

0 

William  Winder 

15 

0 

0 

James  Houston 

9 

0 

0 

George  Handy 

9 

0 

0 

Ebenezer  Waller 

9 

0 

0 

Gilliss  Polk 

9 

0 

0 

William  Adams 

25 

0 

0 

Tohn  Adams 

25 

0 

0 

Henry  Lowes 

40 

0 

0 

John  Waters 

15 

0 

0 

1  lamilton  Bell,  jun. 

9 

0 

0 

Wm.  Dashiell,  sen. 

9 

0 

0 

A.  Cheney 

10 

0 

0 

John  Evans  (of  Nicholas) 

9 

0 

0 

Alexander  Roberts 

9 

0 

0 

Thomas  Bruff 

9 

0 

0 

Total    Amount    of   Somcr-  ") 


set  Countv 


^6i5 


Total  Amount  of  Dorches-  )    r 

r*  >  /I02I       O      O 

ter  County  J  *» 


Worcester   County.* 

£■ 

Joseph  Dashiell  25 

Peter  Chaille  ■  25 
Benjamin  Burnell  (of  Matthew)  15 

Charles  Bennet  9 

Solomon  Long  18 

Philip  Quinto.i  10 

William  Purnell  25 

Robert  Done  15 


s. 

d. 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

Amount  carried  forward 


£l42 


*  The  original  manuscript  of  this  subscription  is  now  in  the  collection  of  Wm.  Kent 
Gilbert,  M.  D. 
6 


LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE 


[1782 


£■ 

.r. 

d. 

£■ 

s. 

d. 

Amount  brought  over 

142 

0 

O 

Amount  brought  up 

150 

0 

0 

William  Selby 

10 

0 

O 

Michael  Earle 

20 

0 

0 

James  Quinton 

9 

O 

O 

John  Miller 

15 

O 

0 

John  Martin,  jun. 

9 

0 

O 

Rev.  John  Lewis 

9 

0 

0 

George  Fruitt,  jun. 

15 

O 

0 

Sidney  George 

20 

0 

0 

Dr.  Bishop 

15 

0 

0 

John  Leach  Knight 

20 

0 

0 

Thomas  Martin 

12 

0 

0 

John  Carnan 

9 

0 

0 

Jethro  Bowin 

9 

0 

0 

Daniel  Charles  Heath 

60 

0 

0 

John  Parramore 

10 

0 

0 

Henry  Ward  Pearce 

5° 

0 

0 

William  Holland 

10 

0 

0 

Joshua  George 

20 

0 

0 

Levin  Davis 

10 

0 

0 

Perry  Ward 

18 

0 

0 

Levin  Blake 

15 

0 

0 

John  Ward  Veazey 

10 

0 

0 

Levin  Hill 

9 

0 

0 

fames  Louttit 

20 

0 

0 

M.  Downes 

9 

0 

0 

John  Ward  (Son  of  Perry) 

9 

0 

0 

Henry  Ayres 

9 

0 

0 

John  Cox 

20 

0 

0 

John  Ayres 

9 

0 

0 

John  Hall 

9 

0 

0 

Joshua     Townsend 

{Indian 

William  Rumsey 

15 

0 

0 

Town) 

15 

0 

0 

John  Rumsey 

12 

0 

0 

William  Handy 

12 

0 

0 

William  Ward 

IO 

0 

0 

John  Selby 

15 

O 

0 

John  Ward 

9 

0 

0 

John  Warner 

12 

O 

0 

Thomas  B.  Veazey 

9 

0 

0 

John  Neill 

9 

O 

0 

John  Dochery  Thomson 

12 

0 

0 

Moses  Chaille 

9 

0 

0 

William  Matthews 

15 

0 

0 

James  Martin 
Isaac  Houston 

9 
9 

0 
0 

0 

0 

Total    Amount    of    Ccecil ") 

^541 

Parker  Selby  (of  Parker) 

9 

0 

0 

County                               j 

0 

0 

William  Allen 

3° 

O 

0 

Henry  Dennis 

5° 

O 

0 

Caroline  County. 

Robert  Dennis 

9 

0 

0 

£■ 

s. 

d. 

Thomas  Purnell,  sen. 

25 

0 

0 

Mathew  Driver 

3° 

0 

0 

William  Morris 

15 

0 

0 

Charles  Damn 

3° 

0 

0 

Zadock  Purnell,  sen. 

45 

O 

0 

William  Hopper 

35 

0 

0 

Samuel  Handy 
John  Pope  Mitchell 

iS 
15 

0 

0 

0 
0 

£95 

0 

0 

Thomas  Purnell  (W. 

N.) 

rorces- 

18 

0 

0 

Accomack  County. 

Total  Amount  of  \\ 

}^626 

ter  County 

0 

0 

(  Virginia.) 

£■ 

s. 

d. 

George  Corbin 

30 

0 

0 

Ccecil 

County. 

George  Stewart 

20 

0 

0 

£■ 

J. 

d. 

Skinner  Wallop 

10 

0 

0 

The  Visitors  of  the  fr'>pi  ^^Knni 

150 

0 

0 

Virginia  Money 

/60 

0 

0 

Amount  carried  forward 


^150    o    o 


N  B.  The  Subscriptions  in  Caroline  County,  and  in  Accomack  and  Northampton 
Counties,  in  Virginia,  as  well  as  the  upper  Part  of  Ccecil  County,  are  yet  left  to  be 
completed,  together  with  the  additional  Subscriptions  proposed  to  be  opened  in  the 
other  Counties  of  the  Eastern  Shore.* 


*  These  subscriptions  I  am  not  able  to  give  from  any  memoranda  of  Dr.  Smith's 
just  now  accessible  to  me.  They  are  supposed,  however,  to  have  been  considerable; 
although  those  above  given  show  Dr.  Smith's  wonderful  services  in  the  cause  of  letters. 
— H.  W.  S. 


1782]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D .  83 

The  Instrument  of  Trust. 

To  the  Honorable  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland. 

We,  the  subscribers,  agreeable  to  our  appointment  by  "  the  Visitors 
and  Governors  of  Washington  College,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,"  and 
on  their  behalf,  beg  leave  to  present  and  deliver  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, the  instrument  of  writing,  or  declaration  of  trust,  required  by  law, 
as  the  condition  upon  which  the  operation  of  their  charter  is  to 
commence. 

The  very  numerous  and  liberal  subscriptions  which  have  been 
obtained  towards  founding  and  supporting  this  College,  in  the  different 
counties  to  which  our  applications  were  directed,  are  a  proof  of  the  zeal 
of  the  subscribers  for  the  advancement  of  knowledge,  virtue  and  public 
spirit.  By  that  zeal,  the  Visitors  of  Kent  county  school  have  been 
enabled  to  give  existence  to  a  Corporation  for  the  advancement  of  liter- 
ature, in  less  than  five  months,  for  which  they  were  allowed  five  years 
by  the  indulgence  of  law.  We  trust,  and  are  assured,  that  such  exer- 
tions of  individuals,  for  the  public  emolument,  do  not  only  merit,  but 
will  receive  the  most  public  approbation,  as  well  as  future  protection 
and  encouragement  of  the  Legislature.  Together  with  the  Declaration 
of  Trust,  and  list  of  subscriptions,  we  beg  leave  to  present  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  copies  of  a  letter  from  the  Visitors  of  Kent  county  school 
to  his  Excellency,  the  illustrious  Commander  in  Chief  of  our  armies,  on 
the  subject  of  this  College,  and  of  the  answer  which  they  had  the  honor 
to  receive  from  him.  The  exalted  and  patriotic  sentiments  which  it 
contains  can  only  be  truly  conveyed  to  the  public  by  the  letter  itself. 

We  would  further  humbly  pray  the  General  Assembly,  that  the  several 
papers  and  subscription  lists  herewith  presented  may  be  preserved  among 
their  journals  and  printed  with  the  same  ;  that  the  names  of  the  first 
founders,  benefactors  and  patrons  of  this  seminary  may  remain  on 
perpetual  record.  The  names  of  future  benefactors  will  be  reported 
and  recorded  as  occasion  may  require. 

William  Smith. 
Pere.  Lethbury. 

November  26,  1782. 

Declaration  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors. 

To  the  Honorable  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland. 

We,  the  subscribers,  "  Visitors  and  Governors  of  Washington  College, 
in  the  State  of  Maryland,"  beg  leave  to  declare,  that,  agreeable  to  the 
act,  whereby  we  are  incorporated,  entitled,  "An  Act  for  founding  a 
College  at  Chester  Town,"  there  are  ten  visitors  and  governors  duly 
chosen  in  different  counties  of  this  shore,  upon  subscriptions  of  ^500 
each,  in  addition  to  the  seven  visitors  of  Kent  County  School  ;  and 
that  "we  are  willing  and  desirous  to  take  upon  us  and  discharge  the 


84 


LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE 


[1782 


trust  of  visitors  and  governors  of  the  said  College,  and  that  an  estate  or 
sum  and  sums  not  less  than  Five  Thousand  Pounds  current  money 
(including  the  estate  of  Kent  county  school)  is  so  secured  to  be  paid  to 
us,  that  we  will  answer  for  the  value  thereof,  and  the  application  of  the 
same,  towards  founding,  endowing  and  supporting  the  said  College, 
according  to  our  best  judgment  and  the  tenor  of  the  said  act,"  which  is 
our  Charter.  And  we  further  declare  that  a  sum  of  money,  exceeding 
^5,000,  (exclusive  of  the  estate  of  Kent  county  school;  and  amounting 
to  ,£5,992  145-.  $d.,*  is  subscribed  towards  the  said  College,  as  will 
appear  by  the  subscription  lists  herewith  delivered  ;  and  that  we  will  use 
our  best  endeavors,  and  have  no  doubt  to  obtain  a  due  collection  of  the 
whole  of  the  said  subscriptions,  and  will  faithfully  apply  the  same,  as 
far  as  obtained,  towards  founding,  endowing,  and  supporting  the  said 
College  ;  and  also  all  future  benefactions,  subscriptions,  and  contribu- 
tions that  may  come  into  our  management  and  power — 
This  we  declare  this  15th  of  Oct.,  1782,  under  our  hands,  having  first 
taken  the  oaths  of  fidelity  and  support  to  this  State,  according  to 
the  direction  of  our  said  charter  of  incorporation. 

William  Smith,  President. 
Jos.  Nicholson, 
James  Anderson, 
J  John  Scott, 
William  Bordley, 
Pere.  Lethbury, 
Benjamin  Chambers, 
John  Page, 

Robert  Goldsborough, 
Wm.  Perry, 
Peter  Chaille, 
James  Lloyd, 
Joshua  Seney. 

Oct.  22d.     Thomas  Smyth,  jun. 

Nov.  8th.      Samuel  Keene. 

Nov.  13th.    Wm.  Paca. 

Nov.  19th.    Wm.  Thomson. 

The    following    correspondence    makes    a    proper  part    of   the 
narrative : 


Oct.  15th. 


*  This  was  the  Amount  at  the  Time  of  delivering  the  List  of  Subscribers  to  the 
General  Assembly.  But  as  the  List  stands  above,  added  to  what  was  produced  by  the 
Sale  of  Leases  of  Ninety-nine  Years  for  Sixty-three  Lots  of  Ground,  hereinafter  men- 
tioned, the  whole  Capital  raised  for  the  founding  this  Seminary  of  Learning  from  the 
Time  of  passing  the  Charter  in  May,  1782,  to  the  first  Commencement  in  May,  1783, 
was  about/ 10,300.  Considerable  Benefactions  have  been  since  received,  and  a  much 
larger  Number  soon  expected,  which  will  be  laid  before  the  World,  in  a  future 
Publication.     (Original  note  by  Dr.  Smith. — II.  W.  S.) 


I78-]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  S$ 

The  Visitors  of  Kent  County  School,  to  General  Washington. 

Chester  in  Kent  County,  Maryland,  July  8,  1782. 
May  it  please  your  Excellency, 

By  order  and  in  behalf  of  the  Visitors  of  Kent  County  school,  I  have 
the  honor  to  enclose  to  your  Excellency,  an  act  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  Maryland,  for  erecting  a  College  at  Chester,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Eastern  Shore,  or  Peninsula  between  Chesapeak  and  Delaware  Bay;  , 
which  they  have  dignified  with  the  auspicious  name  of  "  WASHINGTON 
College,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  in  honorable  and  perpetual  memory 
of  his  Excellency  General  Washington,  the  illustrious  and  virtuous 
Commander  in  Chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States." 

In  every  possible  way,  your  country  wishes  to  erect  public  monuments 
to  you,  even  while  living,  and  posterity,  without  doubt,  will  greatly 
increase  the  number;  but  none,  it  is  believed,  can  be  more  acceptable 
to  you,  than  a  seminary  of  universal  learning  expressly  dedicated  to 
your  name,  with  a  view  of  instructing  and  animating  the  youth  of  manv 
future  generations  to  admire  and  to  imitate  these  public  virtues  and 
patriot-labours,  which  have  created  a  private  monument  for  you  in  the 
heart  of  every  good  citizen. 

As  this  College  is  to  be  instituted  upon  the  foundation  of  Kent 
county  school,  the  Visitors  of  the  said  school  are  by  law  honored  with 
the  great  trust  of  carrying  the  design  into  execution.  They  have  already 
been  favoured  with  very  liberal  subscriptions,  under  the  auspices  of  your 
name ;  and  have  no  doubt  of  speedily  receiving  such  farther  subscrip- 
tions, payable  in  three  equal  yearly  payments,  as  wilt  amount  to  the 
estimate  in  the  law,  and  enable  them,  the  next  spring,  to  build  the 
necessary  school  rooms  for  lectures  in  the  sciences,  and  to  furnish  them 
with  books  and  philosophical  apparatus. 

The  Visitors  hope  to  obtain  your  Excellency's  permission  to  place 
your  name  at  the  head  of  the  seven  additional  Visitors  and  Governors 
of  the  College,  which  the  law  allows  to  be  chosen  from  any  of  the 
neighbouring  States,  to  make  up  the  number  twenty-four,  as  you  will 
observe  in  the  perusal  thereof.  They  further  hope,  that  the  time  is  not 
very  remote,  in  which  this  infant  seminary  may  salute  you  in  person, 
and,  like  a  dutiful  child,  as  one  of  its  first  works,  present  the  olive 
wreath  and  other  emblems  of  peace  to  its  father,  guardian  and  protector. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  in  behalf  and  by  order  of  the  Visitors  of  Kent 
county  school,  your  Excellency's  most  obedient  and  most  humble 
servant,  William  Smith. 

General  Washington's  Answer. 

Headquarters,  Newburgh,  18th  August,  1782. 
I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  favour  of  the  8th  ult.  by  Colonel 
Tilghman,  who  arrived  here  about  ten  days  ago,  and  to  whom  I  have 
committed  the  charge  of  forwarding  this  answer. 


S6  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  [1782 

To  the  gentlemen  who  moved  the  matter,  and  to  the  Assembly  for 
adopting  it,  I  am  much  indebted  for  the  honor  conferred  on  me,  by 
giving  my  name  to  the  College  at  Chester.  At  the  same  time  that  I 
acknowledge  the  honor,  I  feel  a  grateful  sensibility  for  the  manner  of 
bestowing  it  ;  which,  as  it  will  remain  a  monument  of  their  esteem,  can- 
not but  make  a  deep  impression  on  my  mind,  only  to  be  exceeded  by  the 
flattering  assurance  of  the  lasting  and  extensive  usefulness  of  the  Seminary. 

If  the  trifling  sum  of  Fifty  Guineas  will  be  considered  as  an  Earnest 
of  my  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  this  Seminary,  I  shall  be  ready  to  pay 
that  sum  to  the  order  of  the  Visitors,  whenever  it  is  their  pleasure  to  call 
for  it — It  is  too  trifling  to  stand  in  any  other  point  of  view — nor  would 
I  wish  it  to  do  so. 

With  much  pleasure  should  I  consent  to  have  my  name  enrolled 
among  the  worthy  Visitors  and  Governors  of  this  College;  but  con- 
vinced as  I  am  that  it  will  never  be  in  my  power  to  give  the  attendance 
which  by  law  is  required,  my  name  could  only  be  inserted  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  some  other,  whose  abilities  and  proximity  might  enable  him  to 
become  a  more  useful  member. 

When  that  period  shall  arrive  when  we  can  hail  the  blest  return  of 
peace,  it  will  add  to  my  pleasure,  to  see  this  infant  seat  of  learning 
rising  into  consistency  and  proficiency  in  the  sciences,  under  the 
nurturing  hands  of  its  founders. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  Reverend  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  Servant, 

George  Washington. 
To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  at  Chester,  in  Kent  County,  Maryland. 

The  following  proceedings  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  of  Mary- 
land, November  27th,  1782,  will  conclude  our  narrative  of  the 
establishment  by  Dr.  Smith  of  Washington  College ;  a  narrative 
somewhat  long  we  fear,  but  necessary  fully  to  exhibit  the  abilities 
of  Dr.  Smith  and  his  undisturbed  equanimity  and  courage  under 
trials  and  adversities,  which  would  have  driven  most  men  into 
despondency  or  recklessness: 

The  Address  in  behalf  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  Washington 
College  and  their  Declaration  of  Trust,  with  the  list  cf  subscriptions 
towards  founding  and  supporting  the  said  College,  and  copies  of  the 
letter  from  the  Visitors  of  Kent  County  School,  to  his  Excellency 
General  Washington,  and  his  answer,  being  read. 

Resolved,  That  the  Visitors  of  Kent  County  School  have  exerted 
themselves  with  a  laudable  diligence  and  address  in  the  execution  of  the 
trust  committed  to  them  for  founding  the  said  College. 

Resolved,  That  the  numerous  subscribers  towards  founding  this  Col- 


I/S3]  XEV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  Zj 

L[:c  have  given  an  exemplary  proof  of  their  zeal  for  the  honor  and 
interest  of  their  country,  by  contributing  so  freely  and  liberally  toward 
the  establishment  of  a  general  Seminary,  for  the  advancement  of 
knowledge,  virtue  and  public  spirit. 

Resolved,  That  the  Declaration  of  Trust  by  the  Visitor.?  and  Govern- 
ors of  the  said  College  is  an  acceptable  pledge  and  assurance  that  they 
will  continue  to  exert  the  utmost  zeal  and  abilities  to  carry  on  and  com- 
pleting the  establishment  of  a  Seminary  so  successfully  begun,  and  which 
promises  to  be  of  public  utility  to  the  present  and  future  generations. 

Resolved,  That  their  exertions  merit  the  approbation  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, and  (when  circumstances  will  permit)  ought  to  receive  their  public 
encouragement  and  assistance. 

Resolved,  That  the  exalted  and  patriotic  sentiments  contained  in  the 
letter  of  his  Excellency  General  Washington,  in  answer  to  the  letter  of 
the  Visitors  of  Kent  County  School,  and  the  polite  manner  in  which  he 
hath  been  pleased  to  accept  the  honorable  intentions  of  the  General 
Assembly,  in  dignifying  the  College  with  his  name,  are  proofs  of  that 
goodness  and  greatness  of  soul  by  which  he  is  actuated  in  all  his  conduct. 

Resolved,  That  the  several  papers  upon  which  these  resolutions  are 
founded  be  entered  on  the  journals  of  the  Assembly,  and  be  published 
with  the  same,  in  honor  of  the  first  founders,  benefactors  and  patrons 
of  this  Seminary. 


CHAPTER    XLIV. 

First  Commencement  of  Washington  College,  May  14,  1783 — List  of  Gradu- 
ates— Corner-Stone  Laid — Convention  at  Chestertown,  May  12,  1783 — 
Petition  the  Assembly — Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White — Convention  at 
Annapolis,  August  13,  1783 — Petitions  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
Maryland — Declaration  of  Rights — Notice  of  Rev.  Thomas  Gates— Dr. 
Smith  Chosen  for  Bishop  of  Maryland — Clergy  of  Maryland  Give 
Recommendation  of  him  for  Consecration  to  the  Bishop  of  London — 
Notices  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon  and  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  West — Marriage 
of  Dr.  Smith's  Eldest  Daughter. 

Ox  Wednesday,  the  14th  of  May,  1783,  was  held  the  First  Com- 
mencement in  Washington  College  for  Degrees  in  the  Arts  and 
Sciences.  The  scene  was  new  and  interesting,  not  only  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Chestertown,  but  to  those  of  the  State  in  general. 

We  have  the  following  contemporary  account  of  the  event : 

At  ten  in  the  forenoon,  a  procession  was  formed  from  the  place  where 
the  schools  were  kept,  to  the  Church,  in  the  following  order,  viz.  : 
1st.  The  body  of  Scholars  and  Students,  two  by  two. 
2d.  The  Candidates  for  Degrees,  in  the  like  order. 


88  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/33 

3d.  The  Faculty  of  Professors,  with  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D., 
President  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors,  who  acted,  by  appointment,  as 
Principal  pro  Tempore,  at  their  head. 

4th.  The  corporation  of  Visitors  and  Governors,  his  Excellency 
William  Paca,  Esq.  ;  Governor  of  the  State,  and  one  of  the  said 
Visitors  and  Governors,  at  their  head. 

When  the  procession  arrived  at  the  Church  door,  the  scholars,  stu- 
dents and  candidates  for  degrees  filed  off  to  the  right  and  left,  forming 
a  lane  through  which  the  Faculty  and  Corporation  of  Visitors  and  Gov- 
ernors marched  into  the  Church,  followed  by  the  candidates,  and  then 
the  students  and  scholars  according  to  their  classes  and  seniority. 

The  company  being  seated,  the  Principal  pro  Tempore  (Dr.  Smith) 
opened  the  business  of  the  day  with  a  solemn  Prayer  and  Address  to 
the  SUPREME  BEING;  and  afterwards  a  short  Latin  oration  to  the 
learned  and  collegiate  part  of  the  audience,  as  custom  seems  to  require. 
The  candidates  then  proceeded  with  the  public  exercises  as  follows,  viz. : 

1.  A  Latin  Salutatory  Oration,  by  Mr.  John  Scott. 

2.  An  oration  in  French,  by  Mr.  James  Scott. 

3.  A  Latin  Syllogistic  Dispute — "JVum  sEternitas  Panarum  contra- 
dicit  divi?iis  Attributis ?"  Respondent  Mr.  Charles  Smith;*  Oppo- 
nents Messrs.  William  Barrol  and  William  Bordley. 

4.  An  English  Forensic  Dispute, — "  Whether  the  state  of  nature  be 
a  state  of  war?"  The  speakers  were  Messrs.  John  Scott,  William 
Barrol,  William  Bordley  and  James  Scott. 

5.  The  Degrees  were  conferred  by  the  Principal  as  follows: 

f~  Charles  Smith,      ^ 
j  James  Scott,  j 

Messrs.  <  Tohn  Scott,  >  Bachelors  of  Arts. 

I  William  Barrol, 
^  William  Bordley,  J 
Mr.  Samuel  Kerr,  Honorary  Bachelor  of  Arts. 
Mr.  Colin  Ferguson,  Master  of  Arts. 

Mr.  Samuel  Armor,  Master  of  Arts  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia, 
admitted  ad  eundem.^ 

6.  An  English  Valedictory  Oration,  which  concluded  with  a  striking 
and  prophetic  copy  of  verses  on  the  progress  of  the  sciences  and  the 
growing  glory  of  America — By  Mr.  Charles  Smith. 

*  This  Charles  Smith  was  the  third  son  of  Dr.  Smith.  He  was  born  in  Philadel- 
phia, March  4th,  1765,  and  baptized  in  Christ  Church  in  that  city  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Sturgeon  on  the  21st  of  August  of  the  same  year,  John  Moore,  Esq.,  and  Charles 
Smith,  his  uncles,  being  sponsors.  He  was  President  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  of  Franklin  and  Cumberland  counties,  and  afterwards,  when  the  District  Court 
of  Lancaster  was  created,  he  became  its  first  President  Judge,  and  the  author  of  a  val- 
uable annotated  edition  of  the  Laws  of  Pennsylvania. 

f  The  last  two  gentlemen  were  the  senior  or  chief  Professors  in  the  Arts  and  Sciences, 
and  Mr.  Kerr  one  of  the  Masters  in  the  Grammar  School. 


17S3]  REV.    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  89 

7.  The  Principal  then  closed  the  business  of  the  Commencement, 
with  an  affectionate  and  pathetic  Charge  to  the  Graduates,  respecting 

their  future  conduct  in  life ;  and  what  was  to  be  expected  from  them,  as 
the  first  or  eldest  sons  of  this  rising  seminary  ! — 

The  different  speakers  were  honored  with  the  justest  applause  of  the 
audience,  for  the  propriety  of  their  delivery  and  many  masterly  strokes 
of  eloquence  in  the  different  languages  which  they  spoke,  viz.  :  Latin, 
French  and  English. — The  Valedictory  Oration  in  particular,  from  the 
nature  of  the  subject,  as  well  as  beauty  of  the  delivery,  had  a  very 
striking  effect  upon  all  who  were  present. — 

In  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  Dr.  Young's  Tragedy  of  the  Bro- 
thers, notwithstanding  the  difficulty  of  the  composition,  was  acted 
with  the  greatest  applause  before  a  vastly  crowded  and  discerning  audi- 
ence, by  the  graduates  and  some  others  of  the  students.  Messrs.  Charles 
Smith  and  John  Scott,  who  had  before  distinguished  themselves  in 
Tamerlane  and  Bajazet,  as  well  as  in  some  principal  characters  in  other 
performances,  during  the  last  years  of  their  education,  concluded  their 
scholastic  labours  in  this  way,  by  shining  in  the  characters  of  the  Two 
Brothers  ! 

The  day  following  (viz.:  on  Thursday,  May  15th)  the  Visitors  and 
Governors,  the  Masters,  Students  and  Scholars,  accompanied  by  a  great 
number  of  gentlemen  from  the  neighboring  counties,  went  in  procession 
to  the  hill  where  the  new  College  is  to  be  built ;  and  after  Prayer  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  the  Foundation  Stone  was  laid,  with  the  proper 
ceremony,  by  his  Excellency,  Governor  Paca,  who  was  saluted  on  the 
occasion  by  thirteen  discharges  of  cannon.  Orations  in  French  were 
delivered  by  Messrs.  Thomas  Worral  and  Ebenezer  Perkins ;  and  a 
Pastoral  Dialogue  was  spoken  by  three  of  the  younger  scholars,  in  shep- 
herds' dresses,  viz.:  Messrs.  Richard  Smith,*  Robert  Buchanan  and 
Joseph  Nicholson.  The  performance  being  too  long,  perhaps,  to  insert 
at  large,  we  give  a  few  lines  from  the  beginning  and  conclusion — 

"When  Athens  flourish'd  with  the  Grecian  reign, 
And  Chiefs  and  Heroes  liv'd — a  God-like  Train  ! 
When  by  her  Arms  each  neighbouring  State  was  sway'd, 
And  Kings  an  Homage  to  her  Warriors  paid — 
Ev'n  then  those  Chiefs,  who  all  the  World  subdu'd, 
Lower'd  their  proud  Faces  to  the  Learn'd  and  Good: 
Nor  with  less  Glory  in  the  Rolls  of  Fame 
Shines  every  Sage's,  than  each  Hero's  Name." 

This  happy  Day  we  glory  in  a  Scene, 

Which  Athens  Self  enraptur'd  would  have  seen  ; 

Science  triumphant  and  a  Land  refin'd, 

Where  once  rude  Ignorance  sway'd  th'  untutor'd  Mind  ; 

*  Dr.  Smith's  youngest  son. 


90  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1783 

The  Wise,  the  Good,  the  Fathers  of  the  State, 
Conven'd  with  Joy  to  fix  the  Muse's  Seat; 
To  lay  a  fast  Foundation-Stone,  which  shall 
Be  only  mov'd  when  sinks  this  Earthly  Ball  ! 
Auspicious  Day  !   no  more  the  Muses  mourn, 
But  hail  their  Parent  Peace  on  her  Return — 
Heav'n  gives  the  Word,  and  bids  Mankind  repose, 
Contending  Nations  blush  that  they  were  Foes; 
Old  Warriors  now  shall  glow  with  Rage  no  more, 
But  reap  the  Fields  their  Valour  sav'd  before. 
Hail  Goddess  Peace  !    in  thy  celestial  Mien 
Sweet  Happiness  and  ev'ry  Grace  are  seen  ; 
O'er  thy  smooth  Brow  no  rugged  Helmet  frowns, 
An  Olive  Wreath  thy  shining  Temple  crowns. 
Let  now  the  Muses  hasten  to  explore 
The  tawny  Chief  on  Erie's  distant  Shore, 
Or  trace  his  Steps  among  the  Forests  wide, 
That  deep  imbrown  the  vast  Ontario's  Side  ; 
And  bid  him  quick  his  deadly  Bow  unbend, 
For  now  destructive  War  is  at  an  End ; 
Let  mighty  Mississippi,  as  he  runs, 
Proclaim  aloud  to  all  his  swarthy  Sons, 
That  to  Earth's  Ends  fair  Science  shall  encrease, 
And  form  one  Reign  of  Learning  and  of  Peace  ! 

The  rapid  and  great  success  of  Washington  College,  not  less 
than  his  own  commanding  powers  as  an  orator,  writer  and  execu- 
tive agent  in  every  department,  had  by  the  year  1783  made  Dr. 
Smith  a  conspicuous  and  influential  person  of  the  Church  in  Mary- 
land. And  as  he  abated  nothing  of  his  more  youthful  activity  in 
ecclesiasti  ;al  affairs,  his  agency  soon  began  to  show  itself  in  that 
new  State  of  his  residence,  with  obvious  results. 

The  effect  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  on  the  4th  of 
July,  1776,  and  of  different  Acts  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
passed  about  the  same  time,  left  in  an  uncertain  and  precarious 
condition  the  property  of  the  different  parishes  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  the  new  commonwealth.  Soon  after  going  to  Mary- 
land, therefore,  and  even  during  the  war,  Dr.  Smith  prepared  and 
caused  to  be  signed  by  laymen  of  several  parishes  and  by  those 
few  of  the  clergy  who  then  remained,  a  petition  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  State  seeking  to  have  the  matter  of  church-rights 
established.     The  document  was  thus  : 


I783]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  9 1 

To  the  Honourable  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Maryland, 
the  Petition  of  the  Vestry  and  Church- Wardens  of  the  Parish  of 
,  COUNTY, 

HUMBLY  Sheweth,  That  it  is  manifest  from  Reason,  as  well  as  the 
clearer  Light  of  Revelation,  that  the  Worship  of  the  Almighty  Creator 
and  Governor  of  the  Universe,  is  the  indispensable  duty  of  his  depend- 
ent Creatures,  and  the  surest  means  of  procuring  their  temporal  as  well 
as  eternal  Happiness :  That,  where  Religion  is  left  unsupported,  neither 
Laws  nor  Government  can  be  duly  administered  ;  And,  as  the  expe- 
rience of  ages  has  shewn  the  necessity  of  a  provision  for  supporting  the 
Officers  and  Ministers  of  Government,  in  all  civil  Societies;  so  the  like 
experience  shews  the  necessity  of  providing  a  support  for  the  Ordinances 
and  Ministers  of  Religion — because  if  either  Religion  or  Government 
were  left  wholly  dependent  on  the  benevolence  of  individuals,  such  is 
the  frailty  of  human  nature,  and  the  averseness  of  many  to  their  best 
Interests,  that  the  Sordid  and  Selfish,  the  Licentious,  and  Prophane, 
would  avail  themselves  of  such  Liberty  to  shrink  from  their  share  of 
labour  and  expense,  and  thereby  render  that,  which  would  be  easy  when 
borne  by  All,  an  intolerable  burden  to  the  Few,  whose  conscience  and 
principles  of  Justice  would  not  permit  them  in  this,  or  any  other  case, 
to  swerve  from  their  Duties,  Civil  or  Religious. 

That  our  pious  ancestors,  the  worthy  and  respectable  Founders  of 
this  State,  convinced  of  the  foregoing  Truths,  and  declaring  that,  "In 
every  well-grounded  Commonwealth,  matters  concerning  Religion 
ought,  in  the  first  place,  to  be  taken  into  consideration,  countenanced 
and  encouraged  ;  as  being  not  only  most  acceptable  to  God,  but  the 
best  Way  and  Means  of  obtaining  His  Mercy,  and  a  Blessing  upon  a 
People  and  Country,"  (having  the  Promises  of  this  Life  and  of  the  Life 
to  come)  did  frame  and  enact  sundry  Laws  for  erecting  Churches  and 
Places  of  Public  Worship,  the  maintenance  of  an  orthodox  Clergy,  the 
Support  and  advancement  of  Religion,  and  the  orderly  Administration 
of  its  divine  and  saving  Ordinances. 

That  the  Delegates  of  this  State,  at  the  great  Mxz.  of  our  Independ- 
ence, in  free  and  full  Convention  assembled,  for  the  purpose  of  estab- 
lishing a  new  Constitution  and  Form  of  Government,  upon  the  author- 
ity of  the  People,  appearing  in  their  Wisdom  to  have  considered  some 
parts  of  the  said  laws  as  inconsistent  with  that  Religious  Liberty  and 
Equality  of  Assessment,  which  they  intended  as  the  basis  of  their  future 
Government,  did,  by  the  33d  Section  of  the  Declaration  of  Rights, 
abrogate  all  such  Laws  theretofore  passed,  as  enabled  any  County  Courts, 
on  the  Application  of  Vestrymen  and  Church-Wardens,  to  make  Assess- 
ments or  Levies  for  Support  of  the  Religious  Establishment;  but  not 
with  a  View  of  being  less  attentive  than  their  pious  Ancestors  had  been, 
to  the  Interests  of  Religion,  Learning,  and  Good  Morals.     On  the 


92  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  ^1783 

contrary,  by  the  very  same  Section,  an  express  Recommendation  and 
Authority  are  given  to  future  Legislatures,  "At  their  discretion,  to  lay  a 
general  and  equal  Tax,  for  the  support  of  the  Christian  Religion," 
agreeably  to  the  said  Declaration. 

That  your  Petitioners  are  sensible  of  the  many  urgent  civil  concerns, 
in  which  the  honorable  and  worthy  Legislatures  of  this  State  have  been 
engaged,  since  the  commencement  of  the  present  great  and  trying 
period  ;  and  how  much  wisdom  and  deliberation  are  at  all  times  neces- 
sary in  framing  equal  laws  for  the  Support  of  Religion  and  Learning, 
and  more  especially  amidst  the  horrors  and  confusions  of  an  expensive, 
cruel,  and  unrelenting  War.  But  they  are  sensible,  at  the  same  Time 
(and  persuaded  the  honorable  Assembly  are  equally  sensible),  that  where 
Religion  is  left  to  mourn  and  droop  her  head,  while  her  sacred  Ordi- 
nances are  unsupported,  and  Vice  and  Immorality  gain  Ground,  even 
War  itself  will  be  but  feebly  carried  on,  Patriotism  will  lose  its  most 
animating  Principle,  Corruption  will  win  its  Way  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  Places,  Distress  will  soon  pervade  every  public  Measure;  our 
Churches,  our  Grave-Yards — the  Monuments  of  the  Piety  of  our  Ances- 
tors, running  into  Ruin,  will  become  the  Reproach  of  their  Posterity; 
nay  more,  the  great  and  glorious  Fabric  of  public  Happiness  which  we 
are  striving  to  build  up,  and  cement  with  an  Immensity  of  Blood  and 
Treasure,  might  be  in  Danger  of  tumbling  into  the  Dust,  as  wanting  the 
stronger  Cement  of  Virtue  and  Religion,  or  perhaps  would  fall  an  easy 
Prey  to  some  haughty  Invader! 

Deeply  impressed  with  these  momentous  Considerations,  and  conceiv- 
ing ourselves  fully  warranted  by  our  Constituents,  in  this  Application  to 
your  honorable  Body,  having  duly  advertized  our  design  without  any  ob- 
jections yet  notified  to  us — your  Petitioners,  therefore,  most  earnestly  and 
humbly  pray  that  an  Act  may  be  passed,  agreeably  to  the  aforesaid  Section 
of  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  for  the  Support  of  public  Religion,  by  an 
equal  assessment  and  tax,  and  also  to  enable  the  Vestry  and  Church- 
Wardens  of  this  Parish,  by  rates  on  the  Pews,  from  time  to  time,  or 
otherwise,  as  in  your  Wisdom  you  shall  think  fit,  to  repair  and  uphold 
the  Church  and  Chapel,  and  the  Church-Yards  and  Burying-Grounds  of 
the  same;  all  which,  your  Petitioners  conceive,  may  be  done,  not  only 
for  this  Parish,  but  at  the  same  time,  if  thought  best,  for  every  other 
Parish  within  this  State  (which,  it  is  believed,  earnestly  desires  the  same) 
by  a  single  Law,  in  a  manner  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  Liberty  and 
Wishes  of  every  denomination  of  Men,  who  would  be  deemed  good 
Christians  and  faithful  Citizens  of  this  State.  And  your  Petitioners,  as 
bound,  shall  ever  pray,  &c. 

In  the  foregoing  Petition,  as  my  readers  will  have  observed,  no 
exclusive  privilege  was  prayed  for;  but  only  "that  a  law  may  be 


i;33]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITHy   D.  D.  9$ 

passed  agreeably  to  the  Bill  of  Rights,  and  to  the  liberty  and 
wishes  of  every  denomination  of  men,  who  would  be  deemed 
good  Christians  and  faithful  citizens  of  this  State."  However, 
some  of  the  vestries  that  presented  the  petitions,  finding  the  public 
difficulties  increasing,  were  apprehensive  that  injury  might  be  done 
to  the  Church  by  pressing  the  petition,  and  soon  afterwards  signi- 
fied their  desire  to  the  General  Assembly  that  further  considera- 
tion of  the  matter  might  be  postponed  to  a  time  of  less  distress 
and  danger. 

On  the  establishment  of  peace,  Governor  Paca,  who  had  been  a 
pupil  of  Dr.  Smith's  (a  graduate  in  the  year  1759  of  the  College 
at  Philadelphia),  and  between  whom  and  the  Provost  there  ever 
subsisted  a  warm  attachment,  with  a  paternal  and  pious  care  for 
the  concerns  of  religion,  as  inseparably  connected  with  the  interest 
of  the  State,  was  pleased,  May  6th,  1783,  to  revive  the  business, 
in  an  address  to  the  General  Assembly.  He  said,  speaking  for 
himself  and  his  council : 

"  It  is  far  from  our  Intentions  to  embarrass  your  deliberations  with  a 
variety  of  objects  ;  but  we  cannot  pass  over  Matters  of  so  high  Concern- 
ment as  Religion  and  Learning.  The  Sufferings  of  the  Ministers  of 
the  Gospel  of  alt  Denominations,  during  the  War,  have  been  very  con- 
siderable; and  the  Perseverance  and  Firmness  of  those,  who  discharged 
their  sacred  Functions  under  many  discouraging  Circumstances,  claim 
our  Acknowledgments  and  Thanks.  The  Bill  of  Rights  and  Form  of 
Government  recognize  the  principle  of  public  Support  for  the  Ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  and  ascertain  the  Mode.  Anxiously  solicitous  for  the 
Blessings  of  Government,  and  the  Welfare  and  Happiness  of  our 
Citizens,  and  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  powerful  Influence  of  Relig- 
ion, when  diffused  by  its  respectable  Teachers,  we  beg  leave  most 
seriously  and  warmly  to  recommend,  among  the  first  Objects  of  your 
Attention,  on  the  return  of  Peace,  the  making  such  Provision,  as  the 
Constitution,  in  this  case,  authorizes  and  approves." 

A  copy  of  this  address,  about  a  week  after  it  was  delivered  to 
the  Assembly,  came  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Smith  and  others  of 
the  Episcopal  Clergy  of  Maryland,  most  of  whom  were  assembled 
at  the  commencement  in  Washington  College  in  May,  1783, 
of  which  we  have  already  spoken.  Dr.  Smith,  finding  the 
concerns  of  religion  so  strongly  recommended  by  the  executive 
to    the    legislative    part    of   government,    thought    it    wise    that 


94  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [  1 7S3 

there  should  be  a  council  or  consultation  of  clergy  held  imme- 
diately for  the  purpose  of  considering  "  What  alterations  might 
be  necessary  in  our  liturgy  and  service ;  and  how  our  church 
might  be  organized  and  a  succession  in  the  ministry  kept  up,  so 
as  to  be  an  object  of  public  notice  and  support,  in  common  with 
other  Christian  churches  under  the  Revolution."  A  convention 
accordingly  assembled  in  the  hall  of  Washington  College,  May 
12-15,  l7%3>     Dr.  Smith  presided. 

It  was  considered  by  this  convention  that  some  legislative 
interposition  or  sanction  might  probably  be  necessary  in  the 
course  of  this  business  ;  for  as  our  church  derived  her  liturgy 
from  the  Church  of  England,  and  was  formerly  dependent  on  the 
same  church  for  a  succession  in  her  ministry,  and  had  certain 
property  reserved  to  her  by  the  constitution  of  Maryland,  under 
the  name  of  the  Church  of  England,  it  became  a  question 
whether,  if  any  alterations  should  be  made  in  the  liturgy,  or  in 
the  mode  of  succession  in  the  ministry,  she  could  any  longer  be 
considered  as  the  church  described  in  the  constitution  of  this 
State,  or  entitled  to  the  perpetual  use  of  the  property  aforesaid. 
An  incorporating  act,  or  charter,  was  also  deemed  necessary  to 
enable  the  clergy,  or  some  representative  body  of  the  church,  to 
raise  and  manage  a  fund  for  certain  charitable  and  pious  pur- 
poses ;  such  charters  having  been  granted  to  Christian  societies 
of  every  denomination  in  other  of  the  neighboring  States,  wher- 
ever they  had  been  prayed  for. 

Dr.  Smith,  who,  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Gates,*  had  been 
appointed  a  committee,  with  extensive  powers,  accordingly  now 
prepared  another  petition.     It  was  thus  : 

To  the  Honourable  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Maryland, 
the  Memorial  and  Petition  of  the  Subscribers  in  Behalf  of  Them- 
selves and  others,  the  Clergy  of  the  Episcopal  Churches, 

Sheweth — That  the  happy  termination  of  War,  the  establishment 
of  Peace,  and  the  final  recognition  and  acknowledgment  of  the  Sover- 
eignty and  Independence  of  these  United  States  among  the  Powers  of 

*  Thomas  Gates,  D.  D. — a  native  of  England;  brought  up  in  the  church.  He 
was  ordained  in  England.  In  1 781  he  became  rector  of  St.  Ann's,  Annapolis;  in 
1785,  of  St.  PeterV,  Talbot,  a  member  of  the  Standing  Committee.  In  1789  he 
removed  to  South  Carolina,  and  there  continued  till  his  death  in  1832.  (Allen's 
History.) 


1783]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  95 

the  World,  yield  a  favourable  occasion  (which  this  State  in  particular 
hath  long  desired)  of  making  some  permanent  Provision,  agreeably  to 
the  Constitution,  for  "  the  Ministers  of  Religion,"  and  the  advance- 
ment of  useful  Knowledge  and  Literature,  through  this  rising  American 
Empire. 

That,  in  respect  to  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  this  State  (to  the 
Communion  of  which  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  good  people  of 
Maryland  belongs)  the  following  things  are  absolutely  necessary,  viz.: 

1st.  That  some  alterations  should  be  made  in  the  Liturgy  and  Service, 
in  order  to  adapt  the  same  to  the  Revolution,  and  for  other  purposes  of 
Uniformity,  Concord  and  Subordination  to  the  State. 

2d.  That  a  plan  for  educating,  ordaining,  and  keeping  up  a  succes- 
sion of  able  and  fit  Ministers  or  Pastors,  for  the  service  of  said  churches 
agreeably  to  ancient  practice  and  their  professed  Principles,  as  well  as 
that  universal  Toleration,  established  by  the  Constitution,  be  speedily 
determined  upon  and  fixed,  under  the  public  authority  of  the  State,  and 
with  the  Advice  and  Consent  of  the  Clergy  of  the  said  Churches,  after 
due  Consultation  had  thereupon. 

Your  Petitioners,  therefore,  humbly  pray — 

That  the  said  Clergy  may  have  leave  to  consult,  prepare  and  offer  to 
the  General  Assembly,  the  Draft  of  a  Bill,  for  the  good  Purposes 
aforesaid — and  your  Petitioners,  as  in  Duty  bound,  shall  pray,  &c. 

WILLIAM  SMITH. 
THOMAS  GATES. 

The  prayer  of  the  foregoing  petition  was  granted. 

A  convention  of  the  clergy  was  now  accordingly  called  to  be 
held  at  Annapolis  on  the  13th  of  August,  1783.  Prior  to  this 
convention  being  assembled,  we  have  the  following  interesting 
letter  from 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  August  4th,  1783. 
Dear  Sir  :  The  Clergy  in  Maryland  are  to  meet  (in  pursuance  of  the 
sanction  obtained  from  the  Grand  Assembly)  on  the  13th  of  this  month: 
but  as  Mr.  Gates  and  myself  were  to  call  this  meeting  we  found  upon 
consulting  our  nearest  brethren  that  they  did  not  think  it  proper,  nor 
that  we  were  authorized  to  call  any  Clergy  to  our  assistance  from  the 
neighboring  States;  that  the  Episcopal  Clergy  of  Maryland  were  in 
some  respects  peculiarly  circumstanced,  and  ought  in  the  first  instance 
to  have  a  preparatory  convention  or  conference  to  consider  and  frame 
a  Declaration  of  their  own  Rights  as  one  of  the  Churches  of  a  separate 
and  independent  State;  to  agree  upon  some  articles  of  Government  and 
unity  among  themselves;  to  fix  some  future  time  of  meeting  by  adjourn- 


g6  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [I/S3 

ment;  to  appoint  a  committee  to  bring  in  a  plan  of  some  few  altera- 
tions that  may  be  found  necessary  in  the  Liturgy  and  Service  of  the 
Church;  and  by  the  authority  of  this  first  meeting  to  open  a  correspond- 
ence on  the  subject  with  the  clergy  of  the  neighboring  States,  and  to 
have  some  speedy  future  and  more  general  meeting  with  the  clergy  of 
these  States,  or  Committees  from  them,  to  unite  if  possible  in  the  altera- 
tions to  be  made  which  many  among  us  think  cannot  have  a  full  Church 
Ratification  till  we  have  decided  on  some  plan  or  another;  the  three 
orders  of  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons  to  concur  in  same.  What  State 
or  civic  ratification  may  be  necessary,  or  whether  any,  is  a  question  yet 
to  be  determined.  In  Maryland  I  presume  a  few  words  of  a  Declara- 
tory Act  that  a  Clergy  ordained  in  such  a  form,  and  using  a  Liturgy 
with  such  alterations  as  may  be  agreed  upon,  are  to  be  considered  as 
entitled  to  the  Glebes,  Churches  and  other  property  declared  by  the 
Constitution  to  belong  to  the  Church  of  England  for  ever.  I  say  such 
a  short  act  as  this,  or  the  opinion  of  the  Judges  that  such  act  is  not 
necessary,  is,  I  conceive,  all  that  will  be  wanted. 

I  am,  &c, 

William  Smith. 
To  Rev'd  Dr.  White. 

One  part  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Convention  of  August  13th, 
1783,  held  at  Annapolis,  was  to  nominate  a  committee  "  To  prepare 
the  draft  of  an  Act  or  Charter  of  Incorporation,  to  enable  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  this  State,  as  a  body  corporate,  to  hold 
goods,  lands  and  chattels,  by  deed,  gift,  devise,  etc.,  to  the  amount 

of  per  annum,  as  a  fund  for  providing  small  annuities  to  the 

widows  of  clergymen,  and  for  the  education  of  their  children,  or 
any  poor  children  in  general,  who  may  be  found  of  promising 
genius  and  disposition,  for  a  supply  of  ministers  in  the  said  church, 
and  for  other  pious  and  charitable  uses." 

We  here  see  Dr.  Smith's  hand  again.  This  was  with  him  an  old 
scheme  introduced  nearly  fifteen  years  before  into  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  and  still  beneficially  existing  in  all 
these  States,  but  in  Pennsylvania  especially.*  He  now  applied  it 
to  Maryland,  where,  we  believe,  it  still  exists  with  valuable  results. 

Other  business  of  this  Convention  was  to  deliberate  concerning 
the  mode  of  obtaining  a  succession  in  the  ministry,  the  choice  of 
fit  persons  for  the  different  orders  of  the  same,  and  some  funda- 
mental articles  for  future  uniformity,  concord,  and  good  govern- 

*  Described  by  us,  Vol.  I.,  page  423. 


1783]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  97 

mcnt,  for  which  purpose  the  following  were  unanimously  agreed 
upon  and  subscribed,  viz. : 

A  Declaration  of  certain  fundamental  Rights  and  Liberties  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Maryland,  drawn  up  and  subscribed, 
viz. 

Whereas  by  the  Constitution  and  Form  of  Government  of  this  State 
— "All  persons  professing  the  Christian  Religion  are  equally  entitled  to 
protection  in  their  Religious  Liberty,  and  no  person,  by  any  Law,  or 
Otherwise,  ought  to  be  molested  in  his  person  or  estate,  on  account  of 
his  Religious  Persuasion  or  Profession,  or  for  his  Religious  Practice; 
unless,  under  colour  of  Religion,  any  man  shall  disturb  the  good  Order, 
Peace,  or  Safety  of  the  State,  or  shall  infringe  the  Laws  of  Morality,  or 
injure  others  in  their  Natural,  Civil,  or  Religious  Rights:"  And 
whereas  the  Ecclesiastical  and  Spiritual  Independence  of  the  different 
Religious  Denominations,  Societies,  Congregations,  and  Churches  of 
Christians  in  this  State,  necessarily  follows  from,  or  is  included  in,  their 
Civil  Independence. 

Wherefore  we,  the  Clergy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of 
Maryland  (heretofore  denominated  the  Church  of  England,  as  by  Law 
established)  with  all  duty  to  the  civil  authority  of  the  State,  and  with 
all  Love  and  Good-will  to  our  Fellow-Christians  of  every  other  Re- 
ligious denomination,  do  hereby  declare,  make  known,  and  claim,  the 
following,  as  certain  of  the  Fundamental  Rights  and  Liberties  inherent 
in  and  belonging  to  the  said  Episcopal  Church,  not  only  of  common 
Right,  but  agreeably  to  the  express  Words,  Spirit  and  Design  of  the 
Constitution  and  Form  of  Government  aforesaid,  viz  , 

I.  We  consider  it  as  the  undoubted  Right  of  the  said  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  in  common  with  other  Christian  Churches  under  the 
American  Revolution,  to  complete  and  preserve  herself  as  an  entire 
Church,  agreeably  to  her  ancient  Usages  and  Profession,  and  to  have 
the  full  enjoyment  and  free  exercise  of  those  purely  Spiritual  Powers, 
which  are  essential  to  the  being  of  every  Church  or  Congregation  of 
the  faithful,  and  which,  being  derived  only  from  Christ  and  his  Apostles, 
are  to  be  maintained  independent  of  every  foreign  or  other  Jurisdiction, 
so  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  civil  Rights  of  Society. 

II.  That  ever  since  the  Reformation,  it  hath  been  the  received 
Doctrine  of  the  Church  whereof  we  are  Members  (and  which  by  the 
Constitution  of  this  State  is  entitled  to  the  perpetual  Enjoyment  of 
certain  Property  and  Rights  under  the  denomination  of  the  Church  of 
England)  "That  there  be  these  three  Orders  of  Ministers  in  Christ's 
Church:  Bishops,  Priests,  and  Deacons,"  and  that  an  Episcopal 
Ordination  and  Commission  are  necessary  to  the  valid  Administration  of 
the  Sacraments,  and  the  due  Exercise  of  the  Ministerial  Functions  in  the 
said  Church. 

7 


C,S  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1783 

III.  That,  without  calling  in  Question  the  Rights,  Modes,  and  Forms 
of  any  other  Christian  Churches  or  Societies,  or  wishing  the  least 
Contest  with  them  on  that  subject,  we  consider  and  declare  it  to  be  an 
essential  Right  of  the  said  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  to  have  and 
enjoy  the  Continuance  of  the  said  three  Orders  of  Ministers  forever,  so 
far  as  concerns  Matters  purely  spiritual ;  and  that  no  Persons,  in  the 
Character  of  Ministers,  except  such  as  are  in  the  Communion  of  the 
said  Church,  and  duly  called  to  the  Ministry  by  regular  Episcopal 
Ordination,  can  or  ought  to  be  admitted  into,  or  enjoy  any  of  the 
"Churches,  Chapels,  Glebes,  or  other  Property,"  formerly  belonging 
to  the  Church  of  England  in  this  State,  and  which,  by  the  Constitution 
and  Form  of  Government,  is  secured  to  the  said  Church  forever,  by 
whatsoever  Name,  she  the  said  Church,  or  her  superior  order  of 
Ministers,  may  in  future  be  denominated. 

IV.  That  as  it  is  the  Right,  so  it  will  be  the  Duty,  of  the  said 
Church,  when  duly  organized,  constituted,  and  represented  in  a  Synod 
or  Convention  of  the  different  Orders  of  her  Ministry  and  People,  to 
revise  her  Liturgy,  Forms  of  Prayer,  and  public  Worship,  in  order  to 
adapt  the  same  to  the  late  Revolution  and  other  local  Circumstances  of 
America;  which  it  is  humbly  conceived,  may  and  will  be  done,  with- 
out any  other  or  farther  Departure  from  the  venerable  Order  and  beauti- 
ful Forms  of  Worship  of  the  Church  from  whence  we  sprung,  than  may 
be  found  expedient  in  the  Change  of  our  Situation  from  a  Daughter  to 
a  Sister-Church. 

August  13th,  1783. 

William  Smith,  President,  St.  Paul's  &  Chester  Parishes,  Kent 
County. 

John  Gordon,  Rector  of  St.  Michael's,  Talbot. 

John  M'Pherson,  Rector  of  William  and  Mary  Parish,  Charles 
County. 

Samuel  Keene,  Rector  of  Dorchester  Parish,  Dorchester  County. 

William  West,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Parish,  Baltimore. 

William  Thomson,  Rector  of  St.  Stephen's,  Ccecil  County. 

Walter  Magowan,  Rector  of  St.  James's  Parish,  Ann-Arundel 
County. 

Tohn  Stephen,  Rector  of  All-Faith  Parish,  St.  Mary's  County. 

Thomas  John  Claggett,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Parish,  Prince  George's 
County. 

George  Goldie,  Rector  of  King  and  Queen,  St.  Mary's  County. 

Joseph  Messenger,  Rector  of  St.  Andrew's  Parish,  St.  Mary's 
County. 

John  Bowie,  Rector  of  St.  Peter's  Parish,  Talbot  County. 

Walter  Harrison,  Rector  of  Durham  Parish,  Charles  County. 

William  Hanna,  Rector  of  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster  Parish,  Ann- 
Arundel  County. 


1783]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  99 


Signed 


Thomas  Gates,  Rector  of  St.  Ann's,  Annapolis. 

John  Andrews,  Rector  of  St.  Thomas's   Parish,   Balti-  \ 

more  County. 

Hamilton   Bell,  Rector  of  Stephnev   Parish,  Somerset     T 

1  June  2?d, 
County.  J  A   ' 

Francis   Walker,    Rector   of  Shrewsbury  Parish,    Kent 

County. 

The  foregoing  declaration  of  rights  being  made  and  subscribed, 
a  copy  of  the  same  was  presented  to  his  Excellency  the  Governor, 
with  the  following  address,  prepared,  undoubtedly,  like  most  or  all 
of  the  other  documents  in  the  case,  by  Dr.  Smith  : 

To  his  Excellency  William  Paca,  Esq.,  Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief, 
iVc,  &c,  of  the  State  of  Maryland. 

We  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Clergy  of  the  said  State,  at  a  Meeting 
or  Convention  held  at  Annapolis  this  13th  August,  1783  (in  pursuance 
of  a  Vote  of  the  House  of  Delegates  passed  at  their  last  Session),  in  order 
to  consider,  make  known  and  declare  those  fundamental  Christian 
Rights,  to  which  we  conceive  ourselves  entitled,  in  common  with  other 
Christian  Churches  ;  Do  hereby,  in  the  first  Place,  return  your  Excel- 
lency our  most  sincere  and  hearty  Thanks  for  your  great  Concern  and 
Attention  manifested  for  the  Christian  Church  in  general  and  her 
suffering  Clergy  of  all  Denominations.  We  trust  and  pray  that  your 
Excellency  will  continue  your  powerful  Intercession  till  some  Law  is 
passed  for  their  future  Support  and  Encouragement,  agreeably  to  the 
Constitution. 

We  herewith  lay  before  your  Excellency  an  authentic  Copy  of  a 
Declaration  of  certain  Rights,  to  which,  according  to  our  best  knowl- 
edge of  the  Laws  and  Constitution  of  our  Country,  we  think  ourselves 
entitled,  in  common  with  other  Churches.  Should  your  Excellency, 
from  your  superior  knowledge  of  both,  think  that  the  Declaration  we 
have  made  stands  in  need  of  any  further  Sanction,  Legislative  or  other- 
Avise,  we  are  well  persuaded  that  a  Continuance  of  the  same  Zeal  and 
Regard  which  you  have  formerly  shown,  will  at  Length  produce  the 
happy  Effect  which  you  so  anxiously  desire. 

Praying  for  a  continued  Encrease  of  your  Excellency's  public  Use- 
fulness, and  that  you  meet  the  reward  thereof  in  the  World  to  come, 

We  are,  &c. 

[Signed  by  all  the  Members,  as  the  above  Declaration  of  Rights  was 
signed.] 

To  this  Governor  Paca  was  pleased  to  return  the  following 
answer,  viz.; 


ICO  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [17S3 

Gentlemen: — I  have  attentively  considered  the  paper  intitled  "A 
declaration  of  certain  Fundamental  Rights  and  Liberties  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  of  Maryland."  And  as  every  denomination  of 
Clergy  are  to  be  deemed  adequate  Judges  of  their  own  Spiritual  Rights, 
and  of  the  Ministerial  commission  and  authority  necessary  to  the  due 
administration  of  the  Ordinances  of  Religion  among  themselves,  it 
would  be  a  very  partial  and  unjust  distinction  to  deny  that  Right  to 
the  respectable  and  learned  Body  of  the  Episcopal  Clergy  in  this  State; 
and  it  will  give  me  the  highest  happiness  and  satisfaction,  if,  either  in 
my  individual  capacity,  or  in  the  public  character  which  I  now  have  the 
honour  to  sustain,  I  can  be  instrumental  in  advancing  the  interests  of 
Religion  in  general,  alleviating  the  Sufferings  of  any  of  her  Ministers, 
and  placing  every  branch  of  the  Christian  Church  in  this  State,  upon 
the  most  equal  and  respectable  footing. 
I  am, 

Gentlemen, 

Your  most  obd't,  humble  Servant, 

William  Paca. 

In  due  time  every  concession  needed  from  the  State  was  ob- 
tained. Some,  at  first  thought  needful,  were  declared  by  sufficient 
authority  to  be  unnecessary;  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  Maryland  succeeded  to  every  desirable  right  of  the  old  Church 
of  England  in  the  Province. 

In  all  these  operations  Dr.  Smith  was  not  only  the  main-spring 
but  the  machinery  and  regulator  also.  It  is  impossible,  I  think,  to 
look  at.  his  efforts  in  re-establishing  the  church  in  Maryland,  after 
it  had  been  laid  in  ruins  by  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  without  a 
lively  feeling  of  gratitude  to  his  memory. 

One  of  the  memorable  acts  of  this  convention  was  the  election 
of  Dr.  Smith  to  the  office  of  Bishop  of  Maryland.  He  moved 
into  the  place  by  the  force  of  gravitation ;' by  the  power  which 
moves  all  inferior  men  to  look  up  to  and  respect  one  of  abilities 
entirely  transcending  their  own.  He  was  directed  to  proceed  to 
England  for  consecration,  the  convention  recommending  that  the 
various  parishes  should  take  up  collections  for  the  purpose  of  pay- 
ing his  expenses. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  his  testimonial  *  intended  to  be  given 
to  the  Bishop  of  London,  if  the  Bishop-elect  should  think  fit  to 
ask  for  consecration : 

"-•  Manuscript  in  Dr.  Smith's  papers. 


T/83]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  101 

Annapolis,  Maryland,  August  16,  1783. 

My  Lord  :— Whereas  the  good  people  of  this  State,  and  in  con- 
nection with  the  Church  of  England,  have  long  labored,  and  do  still 
labor,  under  great  difficulties,  through  the  want  of  a  regular  clergy  to 
supply  the  many  poor  parishes  that  have  for  a  considerable  time  been 
vacant. 

To  prevent,  therefore,  and  guard  against  such  an  unhappy  situation 
for  the  future,  we,  the  Convention,  in  meeting  of  the  Clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England,  have  made  choice  of,  and  do  recommend,  our 
brother,  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  as  a  fit  and  proper  person,  and 
every  way  well  qualified  to  be  invested  with  the  sacred  office  of  a 
Bishop,  in  order  to  perpetuate  a  regular  succession  of  clergy  among  us. 
We  do  with  great  confidence  present  unto  your  Lordship  this  godly  and 
well-learned  man  to  be  ordained  and  consecrated  Bishop,  being  per- 
fectly satisfied  that  he  will  duly  execute  the  office  whereunto  he  is  called, 
to  the  edifying  of  the  Church  and  to  the  glory  of  God. 

Your  Lordship's  well-known  zeal  for  the  Church  and  propagation  of 
the  Christian  religion  induces  us  to  trust  that  your  Lordship  will  com- 
passionate the  case  of  a  remote  and  distressed  people,  and  comply  with 
our  earnest  request  in  this  matter.  For  without  such  a  remedy,  the 
Church  in  this  country  is  in  imminent  danger  of  becoming  extinct. 
That  your  Lordship  may  long  continue  an  ornament  to  the  Church  is 
the  hearty  prayer  of,  my  Lord,  your  very  dutiful  and  most  obedient 
servants, 

*i745-  John  Gordon,  St.  Michael's,  Talbot  county. 
1 75 1.   John  Macpherson,  William  and  Mary  Parish,  Charles  co. 
1750.   Wm.  Thomson,  St.  Stephen's,  N.  Sassafras  Parish,  Cecil. 

1760.  Samuel  Keene,|  Dorchester  and  Great  Choptank  Parishes, 

Dorchester. 

1 761.  William  West,!  St.  Paul's  Parish,  Baltimore. 

1766.  George  Goldie,  King  and  Queen,  St.  Mary's. 
1770.  John  Bowie, f  St.  Peter's,  Talbot. 

1748.   Walter  Magowan,  St.  James'  Parish,  Ann  Arundel  county. 

1764.   John  Stephen,  All  Faith,  St.  Mary's. 

1774.  Walter  H.   Harrison,")"  Durham  Parish,  Charles. 

1772.   Wm.   HANNA,f  St.  Margaret's  Westminster,  Ann  Arundel  co. 

1772.  Joseph  Messenger,  St.  Andrew's  Parish,  St.  Mary's  county. 

1767.  Thomas  John  Claggett,!  St.  Paul's  Parish,  Prince  Geo.  co. 
Thomas  Gates,  St.  Ann's,  Annapolis. 

1767.  John  Andrews,!  St.  Thomas',  Baltimore  county. 

1773.  Francis  Walker,  Kent  Island,  Queen  Anne  county. 


*  These  are  the  dates  of  the  respective  ordinations  of  the  clergy. 

f  Natives  of  the  States — two  natives  of  Virginia  tnd  three  of  New  York. 


102  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1783 

1774.  Hamilton  Bell,*  Stepney  Parish,  Somerset  county. 
1763.   Leonard  Cutting,  All  Hallows',  Worcester  county. 

Will  Smith,  Stepney  Parish,  Worcester  county. 
1774.   Ralph  Higinbotham,  St.  Ann's,  Ann  Arundel  county. 

1784.  Edward  Gantt,*  Christ  Church,  Calvert. 

1785.  Hatch  Dent,*  Trinity,  Charles  county. 

The  Convention  agreed  that  until  a  regular  ordination  of  clergy 
could  be  obtained,  there  should  be  three  clergymen  appointed  on 
each  Shore,  in  order  to  examine  such  young  gentlemen  as  might 
offer  themselves  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  in  our  churches  ;  such 
examiners  to  report  their  moral  character,  their  knowledge  in 
the  learned  languages  and  divinity,  and  their  attachment  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion  as  professed  and  taught  in  our 
Church;  and  to  recommend  such  candidates  as  upon  examination 
might  be  thought  worthy  to  serve  as  readers  in  any  parish  that 
might  think  proper  to  employ  them,  leaving  such  parishes,  as  to  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments  and  other  proper  functions  of  the 
clerical  character,  to  the  more  immediate  direction  of  such  neigh- 
boring clergymen  as  might  agree  to  visit  them  occasionally  for  the 
purpose. 

Dr.  Smith,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon,f  and  Dr.  Samuel  Keene  were 
appointed  for  the  Eastern  Shore,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  West,  %  Dr. 
Thomas  John  Claggett,  and  Dr.  Thomas  Gates,  for  the  Western. 

On  the  15th  of  May  of  this  year  an  important  event  took  place 
in  the  domestic  affairs  of  Dr.  Smith :  his  eldest  daughter,  Wil- 
liamina,§  was  married  to  Charles  Goldsborough,  Esq.,  of  Horn's 


*  Natives  of  the  States — two  natives  of  Virginia  and  three  of  New  York. 

f  John  Gordon,  D.  D.,  a  native  of  Scotland,  brought  up  in  the  Church,  ordained 
in  1745.  On  coming  to  Maryland  became  the  incumbent  of  St.  Ann's,  Annapolis;  in 
1750,  of  St.  Michael's,  Talbot;  a  Whig  of  the  Revolution;  after  1776  had  a  school 
at  his  residence ;  published  three  sermons  ;  died  in  1 790,  aged  upwards  of  70. — Allen. 

J  William  West,  D.  D.,  a  native  of  Virginia,  brought  up  in  the  Church,  ordained  in 
1 761.  Coming  from  Virginia  in  1763,  he  became  the  incumbent  of  Westminster  Parish, 
Ann  Arundel  county;  in  1767  of  St.  Andrew's,  St.  Mary's;  in  1772  of  St.  George's, 
Hartford,  and  in  1779  Rector  of  St.  Paul's,  Baltimore.  A  Whig  of  the  Revolution; 
successively  Secretary  and  President  of  the  Maryland  Convention,  and  member  of  the 
examining,  superintending,  and  standing  committees,  and  delegate  to  the  General 
Convention.     He  died  1791 ,  set  54. — Allen. 

\  The  portrait  of  this  lady  (which  accompanies  this  volume)  is  taken  from  a  minia- 
ture in  a  ring,  which  tradition  says  was  painted  by  the  unfortunate  Major  Andre,  at 
the  time  of  the  Meschianza,  in  which  she  participated.  The  ring  is  now  the  property 
of  Thos.  P.  Cradock,  Esq.,  of  Maryland,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  its  use. — H.  W.  S. 


IVILLIAMINA  SMITH. 


mt:-.  \t 


s   a.  i.k<»k,;k  k  Co..  Phila:  Pa. 


1784]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D. 


10- 


Point,  Dorchester  county,  Maryland.  The  ceremony  war,  per- 
formed in  the  homestead  at  Chestertown,  by  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Keene,  in  the  presence  of  Governor  Paca,  and  a  large  assembly 
of  the  first  people  of  the  State,  who  had  been  called  together  by 
the  laying  of  the  comer-stone  of  Washington  College,  and  the 
Convention  of  the  Church.  Mr.  Goldsborough  was  the  son  of 
Robert  Goldsborough,  Barrister-at-Law  ;  had  been  brought  up  a 
lawyer;  born  Nov.  21st,  1761,  died  June  22d,  1801. 


CHAPTER    XLV. 

Dr.  White,  Dr.  Blackwell  of  Pennsylvania  and  Dr.  Beach  of  New  Jersey 
Desirous  of  a  Continental  Convention  —  Dr.  Smith  in  Maryland 
Assists  the  Project— Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  White— A  Church  Conference  is 
Made  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Clergy  to  Re-establish  the  Corporation  for 
the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Children  of  the  Clergy,  Founded,  1769 
— Ecclesiastical  Convention  of  Pennsylvania,  May  25TH,  1784 — Declara- 
tion by  it  of  Principles — Ecclesiastical  Convention  of  Maryland,  June 
22D,  1784 — Dr.  Smith's  Sermon  at  it — Declaration  by  it  of  Principles 
Sufficiently  Harmonious  with  those  of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention — 
Convent-ion  of  Several  States  in  New  York,  October  6th,  1784 — Dr. 
Smith  Presides — Fundamental  Principles  Declared  by  it,  and  Proceed- 
ings End — Dr.  Smith  Chairman  of  Committee  to  Frame  an  Ecclesias- 
tical Constitution  and  to  Frame  and  Propose  a  Proper  Substitute  for 
the  State  Prayers — Dr.  Smith  Elected  President  of  the  Corporation 
for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows,  etc. 

While  Dr.  Smith  was  thus  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of 
education  in  Maryland  and  in  re-establishing  the  church  in  that 
State,  his  brethren  in  Pennsylvania,  Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Blackwell, 
were  equally  active  not  only  in  re-establishing  the  Church  in 
Pennsylvania,  but  also  in  the  further  work  of  endeavoring  to 
assemble  the  clergy  of  all  the  States  in  what  was  called  a  "  Conti- 
nental Convention."  The  efforts  of  the  respective  parties — orig- 
inated probably  by  the  Reverend  Abraham  Beach,  D.  D.,  at  one 
time  a  minister  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  but  more  lately 
resident  in  Brunswick,  N.  J. — were  natural  to  their  positions. 

Dr.  Smith  had  been  driven  from  Pennsylvania  by  an  embittered 
and  prescriptive  political  faction,  and  found  in  the  quiet  shades  of 
Chestertown  a  retreat  from  their  gross  and  exasperating  injustice. 
Maryland,  he  supposed  it  probable,  might  thenceforth  become  his 


104  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  ll 7^4 

home ;  and  there  the  scene  of  whatever  usefulness,  in  the  order  of 
Providence,  it  might  be  allotted  to  him  to  be  the  means  of. 
White,  on  the  other  hand,  as  chaplain  of  the  Congress,  and  Black- 
well  as  chaplain  in  the  main  army,  for  some  time  close  to  the 
Congress,  were  brought  into  intimate  relations  with  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  church  from  all  parts  of  the  countiy,  and  like  most 
of  the  men  by  whom  the  liberties  of  the  country  were  achieved  on 
the  field,  were  ever  in  favor  of  Union  ;  of  a  corporate  dignity — both 
in  the  State  and  in  the  Church.  Though  now  in  Pennsylvania, 
Blackwell's  family — an  influential  one — was  of  New  York,  while 
his  first  ministerial  duties  had  been  in  New  Jersey,  over  the  whole 
of  which  province  he  had  received  a  license  from  the  Bishop  of 
London  in  1 772  to  act.  These  men  therefore  naturally  extended 
their  views  over  all  the  States,  and  were  desirous  of  having  a 
General  Convention.*  But  a  General  Convention  was  a  hard 
thing  to  accomplish.  Fears,  by  some,  of  what  might  be  resolved 
on  in  such  a  body — the  ambitions,  probably,  of  others  who,  in  the 
church,  as  was  afterwards  the  case  with  some  in  political  affairs, 
knew  that  their  purposes  could  best  be  accomplished,  and  their 
views  best  carried  out,  by  the  supremacy  of  State  organization — 
put  obstacles  in  the  way. 

White,  Smith,  Blackwell,  Magaw,  Beach,  Frazer,  Provost, 
Moore,  Wharton,  and  indeed  most  of  the  clergy,  so  far  as  I  know, 
of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Delaware  and  Maryland, 
while  clear  upon  the  necessity  of  dioceses,  of  which  the  States 
would  in  that  day  be  the  natural  limit,  were  equally  desirous  of  a 
"  Federal  Union,"  as  we  may  call  it ;  a  union  by  which  the  church 
should  be  made  one  in  organization  as  it  was  one  in  faith.  The  first 
efforts  at  a  general  convention  came  from  New  Jersey,  operating 
upon  Pennsylvania  and  New  York ;  and  a  representation  from 
even  so  many  States  was  brought  about,  not  by  any  announce- 
ment that  the  affairs  of  the  church  were  to  be  considered,  but  by  a 
call  upon  the  clergy  and  laity  who  were  the  trustees  of  that  useful 

*  I  ought  probably  to  include  with  the  names  of  White  and  Blackwell  that  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Magaw,  of  Philadelphia.  But  while  everything  which  I  ever  heard 
of  him  is  to  his  honor,  we  have  so  little  biographical  account  of  him,  that  I  am  not  able 
to  say  with  confidence  much  about  him.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  personal  friend  of 
White  and  of  Blackwell,  and  I  believe,  generally  speaking,  a  coadjutor  with  both  in 
most  that  relates  to  the  church.     A  biography  of  him  is  much  needed. 


I/S4]  A'£l~.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  105 

and  now  opulent  corporation  for  the  relief  of  the  widows  and  chil- 
dren of  clergymen — which  we  have  described  much  at  large  in  our 
former  volume,"  and  which  was  a  corporation,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, of  the  three  States  just  named — to  assemble  at  New  Bruns- 
wick, in  New  Jersey,  to  consider  the  best  means  to  save  its 
property,  which  had  been  much  endangered  by  different  fiscal 
operations  of  the  Congress  and  the  States,  from  further  peril,  and 
to  put  the  institution  again  into  active  and  stable  operation. 

This  call  brought  together  certain  gentlemen  of  the  clergy,  to 
wit  : 

From  Pennsylvania,  Dr.  White,  Dr.  Magaw  and  Mr.  Black- 
well. 

New  Jersey,  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Beach,  Frazer  and 
Ogden. 

New  York,  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Bloomer,  Benjamin 
Moore  and  Thomas  Moore. 

The  affairs  of  the  church  in  the  lately  British  Provinces  gener- 
ally was  a  natural  subject  of  consideration  ;  and  there  happening 
to  be  at  the  time  in  New  Brunswick — though  there  by  public 
business  of  a  civil  kind — some  gentlemen  of  the  laity  from  New 
York  and  New  Jersey,  who  were  represented  by  the  clergy  from 
those  States  as  taking  an  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  church,  they 
were  requested  to  join  the  meeting  of  the  clergy.  These  gentle- 
men of  the  laity  were  John  Stevens,  Richard  Stevens,  John 
Dennis,  James  Parker,  Colonel  Hoyt  and  Colonel  Furman.  And 
thus  was  formed,  of  clergy  and  laity,  the  embryo  of  the  General 
Convention  of  the  church  in  America.  Dr.  Smith  was  not  pres- 
ent at  this  meeting.  The  corporation  for  the  relief  of  the  widows, 
etc.,  in  behalf  of  which  the  meeting  was  called — a  Pre-Revolution- 
ary  Corporation — was  not  a  corporation  of  Maryland,  although 
after  going  there  in  1780,  Dr.  Smith  originated  and  caused  to  be 
there  established  a  similar  organization.  His  name  therefore  does 
not  appear  in  any  way  in  this  first  convention  ;  if  the  accidental 
meeting  is  to  be  called  "  a  convention  "  in  any  sense  in  which 
the  word,  in  connection  with  the  church,  is  now  commonly  used. 
Dr.  White  presided  at  this  meeting ;  and  opened  it  with  a  sermon. 

*  Tages  423-432. 


Io6  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [I/84 

Beyond  discussing  principles  of  ecclesiastical  union  little  was  done 
here.  But  before  the  clergy  parted,  it  was  agreed  to  procure  as 
general  a  meeting  as  might  be,  of  representatives  of  the  clergy  and 
laity  of  the  different  States,  to  be  held  in  the  city  of  New  York,  on 
the  6th  of  October  following ;  that  is  to  say,  the  6th  of  October, 
1784.  The  gentlemen  of  New  York  were  to  give  notice  to  their 
brethren  eastward,  and  those  »f  Philadelphia  wer^  to  do  the  same 
by  their  brethren  southward.  Dr.  Smith  had  been  apparently  in- 
formed during  the  session  of  this  meeting  of  its  general  purpose; 
and  though  as  we  have  already  seen*  he  was  desirous  not  to  have 
the  identity  or  separate  existence  of  Maryland,  ecclesiastically 
obliterated,  we  find  him  immediately  doing  what  he  could  to 
advance  the  matter  of  a  general  or  a  "  continental  convention,"  and 
a  combined  organization  of  the  church  throughout  the  whole 
country.  The  following  is  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  influential 
members  of  Trinity  Church,  Oxford,  Philadelphia — the  parish 
where  he  had  once  served  while  a  resident  of  Pennsylvania,  under 
the  appointment  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel. 

Dr.  Smith  to  Messrs.  Cotman  and  Johnson. 

Chestertown,  Maryland,  May  23d,  1784. 
To  Messrs.  Benj.  Cotman  and   Benj.  Johnson. 

I  know  not  what  can  be  done  at  your  meeting  of  vestries.  This,  at 
least,  I  wish,  that  a  clergyman  or  two,  and  about  two  vestrymen  may  be 
appointed  a  committee  to  meet  committees  from  the  neighboring  States 
at  some  convenient  place,  about  next  October,  to  fix  a  general  plan  for 
all  our  Churches,  both  in  respect  to  Discipline  and  our  Church  service. 
Something  fundamental  ought  also  to  be  agreed  upon  respecting  ordina- 
tion, &c,  similar  to  what  was  done  in  Maryland,  a  copy  of  which  I 
gave  to  Dr.  Magaw,  declaring  that  Episcopal  ordination  is  an  indispen- 
sable qualification  for  every  person  who  may  be  desirous  to  hold  any 
living  in  our  Church.  Certainly  none  else  can  hold  any  of  the  Churches 
heretofore  established  or  built  under  the  Society  for  the  Propagating  of 
the  Gospel,  nor  the  Glebes,  where  any  are.  There  will  be  committees 
from  several  of  the  Southern  States,  especially  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
but  they  can  hardly  be  got  together  till  toward  the  end  of  September. 
I  hope  they  may  be  induced  to  meet  as  far  North  as  conveniently  may 
be;  perhaps  at  Philadelphia,  or  Brunswick,  or  Wilmington,  in  Delaware 

State. 

William  Smith. 


*  Supra  page  95,  LtUer  to  ihe  Rev'd  Dr.  White. 


T/84]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  IOJ 

This  letter  as  appears  from  an  indorsement  on  the  original,  yet 
preserved,  was  read  by  Dr.  White  before  the  committee  at  their 
meeting  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  May  25th,  1784. 

Bishop  White,  in  his  Memoirs,*  says  of  this  meeting  (May  25th, 
1784,)  at  New  Brunswick,  "that  notwithstanding  the  good  humor 
which  prevailed  at  it,  the  more  Northern  clergymen  were  under 
apprehensions  of  there  being  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  more 
Southern  to  make  material  deviation  from  the  ecclesiastical  system 
of  England  in  the  article  of  Church  government."  He  adds,  for 
his  own  part,  that  "at  the  same  time  he  wondered  that  any  sensi- 
ble and  well-informed  persons  should  overlook  the  propriety  of 
accommodating  that  system,  in  some  respects,  to  the  prevailing 
sentiments  and  habits  of  this  country,  now  become  an  independent 
and  combined  commonwealth." 

The  clergy  of  Pennsylvania — doubtless  in  view,  alike  of  quieting 
the  alarms  of  the  Northern  churchmen  and  of  guarding  against 
the  adoption  of  some  of  the  very  low  church  principles,  or  rather, 
the  no  church  principles,  at  all,  that  had  a  certain  prevalence  in 
Virginia  and  South  Carolina — met  with  lay  representatives  in 
convention  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  May  24th,  1784,  and 
agreed  upon  certain  matters  of  the  fundamental  sort ;  which,  as 
"instructions"  should  bind  a  standing  committee,  which  the  con- 
vention appointed  with  power  to  correspond  and  confer  with  re- 
presentatives from  the  Episcopal  Church  in  other  States,  or  any  of 
them,  to  assist  in  framing  an  Ecclesiastical  Government.  The 
fundamental  principles  as  then  declared  in  Pennsylvania  were 
these :  f 

First.  That  the  Episcopal  Church  of  these  States  is,  and  ought  to  be, 
independent  of  all  foreign  Authority,  ecclesiastical  or  civil. 

Secondly.  That  it  hath,  and  ought  to  have,  in  common  with  all  other 
religious  societies,  full  and  exclusive  Powers  to  regulate  the  Concerns 
of  its  own  Communion. 

Thirdly.  That  the  Doctrines  of  the  Gospel  be  maintained  as  now 
professed  by  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  Uniformity  of  Worship  be 
continued  as  near  as  may  be  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  said  Church. 

Fourthly.  That  the  Succession  of  the  Ministry  be  agreeable  to  the 
Usage   which    requireth    the    three   Orders   of    Bishops,    Priests    and 

*  Second  Edition.     New  York,  1S36.    Page  79. 
j  Wilson's  Life  of  Bishop  White,  page  100. 


108  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  ['784 

Deacons;  that  the  Rights  and  Powers  of  the  same  respectively  be  ascer- 
tained ;  and  that  they  be  exercised  according  tc  reasonable  Laws,  to  be 
duly  made. 

Fifthly.  That  to  make  Canons  or  Laws,  there  be  no  other  Authority 
than  that  of  a  representative  Body  of  the  Clergy  and  Laity  conjointly. 

SixtJily.  That  no  Powers  be  delegated  to  a  general  ecclesiastical  Gov- 
ernment, except  such  as  cannot  conveniently  be  exercised  by  the  Clergy 
and  Laity  in  their  respective  Congregations. 

Soon  after  this  convention  of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  Pennsyl- 
vania had  taken  place,  Dr.  Smith  invited  a  convention  of  the 
clergy  and  laity  in  Maryland.  He  was  in  Philadelphia  so  late  as 
the  1 8th  of  June,  and  probably  present,  though  not  as  a  delegate, 
at  the  convention  on  the  24th  of  May.  It  is  obvious  that  between 
him  and  Dr.  White  there  was  a  good  understanding,  and  that  the 
two  persons  were  acting  as  co-workers  to  one  end. 

The  Convention  of  Maryland  met  in  that  State,  at  Annapolis, 
on  the  22d  of  June,  1784,  and  declared  among  other  things : 

According  to  what  we  conceive  to  be  of  true  Apostolic  Institution, 
the  duty  and  office  of  a  Bishop  differs  in  nothing  from  that  of  other 
Priests,  except  in  the  Power  of  Ordination  and  Confirmation,  and  in 
the  right  of  precedency  in  Ecclesiastical  meetings  or  synods.  And  if 
any  further  distinctions  and  regulations  in  the  different  orders  of  the 
ministry  should  afterwards  be  found  necessary  for  the  good  government 
of  the  Church,  the  same  shall  be  made  and  established  by  the  joint 
voice  and  authority  of  a  representative  body  of  the  Clergy  and  Laity 
at  future  Ecclesiastical  Synods  and  Conventions. 

Ecclesiastical  State  Conventions  of  Synods  of  this  Church  shall  con- 
sist of  the  Clergy  and  one  Lay  Delegate  or  Representative  from  each 
Vestry  or  Parish,  or  a  majority  of  the  same. 

There  was  thus  a  general  accord  between  the  churches  in  the 
two  important  States  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland.  And  this 
was  an  important  fact.  These  two  churches  made,  in  terms  gen- 
erally similar,  and  in  moderate  but  yet  firm  pretensions,  a  great 
and  fixed  class  of  principles  to  which  the  very  low  churches 
south  of  Mayland,  and  the  quite  high  ones  north  and  east  of 
Pennsylvania,  could  perhaps  find  something  on  the  respective 
sides  to  attach  themselves  to,  and  so  make  one  and  a  connected 
body;  though  there  would  be  confessedly  a  considerable  difference 
in  the  aspect  of  one  extremity  of  it  from  the  aspect  of  the  oppo- 
site extremity. 


1784]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  IO9 

At  the  Convention  of  June  22c],  1784,  in  Maryland,  Dr.  Smith 
presided,  and  preached  the  opening  sermon.  The  text  was  those 
well-known  verses  from  the  Second  Epistle  of  Timothy,  chapter 
i.,  verses  13,  14;  chapter  iv.,  verses  3,  4. 

Hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words  which  thou  hast  heard  of  me  in  faith  and  love 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus — that  good  thing  which  was  committed  unto  thee,  keep  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  dwelleth  in  us. 

For  the  time  will  conic  when  they  will  not  endure  sound  doctrine,  but  after  their 
own  lusts  shall  heap  to  themselves  teachers,  having  itching  ears,  and  they  shall  turn 
away  their  ears  from  the  truth,  and  shall  be  turned  unto  fables. 

The  preacher's  mode  of  treating  the  text  shows  the  heats  of 
which  there  was  danger,  in  the  discussion  of  those  matters  which 
the  times  demanded  should  be  considered  both  in  State  conven- 
tions and  in  conventions  at  large.  He  opens  the  discourse  in  a 
vein  of  sarcasm,  in  which  he  not  unfrequently  indulged  in  political 
discussion  or  conversation,  and  in  which  he  there  found  a  power- 
ful weapon,  but  which  his  high  sense,  both  of  dignity  and  consist- 
ency, prevented  much  use  of  in  the  pulpit.  He  was  here,  however, 
speaking  as  he  was  to  the  Convention  of  Maryland,  at  home  and 
inter suos — more  at  liberty;  and  it  was  perhaps  the  most  effective 
way  to  cure  some  amonsj  them  affected  with  stiffness  in  their 
cervical  vertebra.     Thus  the  Bishop-elect  begins  : 

In  this  very  adventurous  and  inquisitive  Day,  when  men  spurning 
their  kindred-earth,  0:1  which  they  were  born  to  tread,  will  dare,  on 
airy  wing  to  soar  into  the  regions  of  the  sky;  were  it  the  pleasure 
of  our  Almighty  Creator  to  purge  any  of  us  mortals  of  our  terrestrial 
dross,  and  to  place  us,  in  good  earnest,  upon  some  distant  orb,  from 
which  with  clear  and  serene  view,  corporeal  as  well  as  intellectual,  we 
could  survey  this  world  of  ours — what  a  strange  scene  would  it  appear? 
Itself  in  the  rank  of  worlds,  dwindled  into  a  small  mole-hill ;  and  men, 
the  little  emmets  upon  it,  bustling  and  driving  and  crossing  each  other, 
as  if  there  were  no  settled  walk  of  life,  no  common  tie,  or  "  Form  of 
sound  words  to  be  held  fast  of  all,  in  faith  and  love  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus?" 

In  our  intellectual  view,  from  this  eminence  of  station,  we  should 
behold  one  set  of  men,  who  boast  of  the  all-sufficient  and  transcendent 
power  of  Reason,  as  their  rule  and  guide;  but  yet  all  wandering 
through  different  tracts,  although  in  the  same  pursuits  of  Happiness 
and  Peace  !  Another  set  of  men  would  be  seen  who  call  themselves  the 
Special  Favourites  of  Heaven,  and  say  they  are  guided  by  a  glorious 
Inward  Light,  communicated  immediately  from  the  everlasting  Foun- 


IIO  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l7^A 

tain  of  all  Light  !  yet  we  should  not  see  them  walking  together  in  unity, 
or  pursuing  any  common  path  or  way ;  but  fiercely  contending  con- 
cerning their  Inward  Light ;  some  calling  their's  the  good  Old-Light, 
and  others  calling  their's  the  true  New-Light.  To  whom  an  old 
divine  of  our  church,  (the  venerable  Bishop  Andrewes,)  were  he  now 
living,  would  say — "  There  is  no  Light  among  you — the  Devil  hath 
blinded  you  all." 

But,  Thirdly,  we  should  find  another  set  of  men,  and  those  of  truly 
respectable  and  venerable  name,  professing  themselves  guided  only  by 
a  sure  and  written  Form  of  Sound  Words,  revealed  and  given  to  them 
for  their  Instruction,  their  Guide,  and  their  Salvation,  by  their 
Almighty  Creator  himself — Yet,  alas  !  they  would  be  seen,  perhaps, 
almost  as  irregular  and  eccentric  in  all  their  motions  as  the  rest ! 

This  is  a  sad  view  of  things — and  as  the  Poet  says — 

"  In  Pride,  in  reasoning  Pride,  the  error  lies, 
All  quit  their  sphere,  and  rush  into  the  skies ! " 

And  would  to  God,  therefore,  that,  in  all  Religions  and  in  all  Sciences, 
this  accursed  root  of  Bitterness  and  Contrariety  could  be  wholly  plucked 
out  of  the  Christian  world.  For  until  Humanity  and  divine  Charity 
can  have  their  sway,  until  our  Faith  is  exercised  in  Love,  and  the 
Truths  of  God  are  held  in  Righteousness  of  Life,  there  will  never  be  a 
total  harmony  among  men  ! 

However  strong  our  Reason,  however  enlightened  our  Souls,  however 
ardent  our  Faith;  unless  that  spirit  of  Love  and  Humility  be  in  us, 
which  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  all  besides  will  be  of  little  value. 

With  good  reason,  therefore,  does  St.  Paul  admonish  his  beloved 
Timothy  to  let  his  Faith  be  exercised  in  Love,  and  "  to  hold  fast  the 
Form  of  sound  Words  which  he  had  heard  of  him ;  "  for  even  in  those 
early  dayc,  some  had  begun  to  depart  from  the  foundation  laid  by 
Christ  and  his  Apostles;  following  "vain  babblings,"  being  like 
withered  leaves,  sticking  to  the  tree,  only  to  be  blown  away  by  the  first 
wind  of  doctrine;  still  desiring  to  hear  some  new  thing;  led  by  the  ear 
and  not  by  the  heart,  or  as  it  is  strongly  expressed  in  my  text,  "heap- 
ing to  themselves  Teachers,   having  itching  Ears,"  &c All 

other  marks  of  our  faith,  therefore,  are  vain  and  delusive,  unless  we 
have  that  Scripture  mark  of  hearts  glowing  with  Love — a  transcendent 
Love,  flowing  forth  in  fervent  Piety  towards  God,  and  universal  good- 
will towards  Man  ! 

Faith,  therefore,  according  to  my  text,  cannot  be  a  mere  empty 
assent  to  truth,  but  the  holding  of  truth  in  love.  It  is  love  that  shews 
the  true  nature  of  faith.  By  this  it  must  work ;  and  by  this  only  can 
God  be  pleased.  For  love  flowing  from  faith  is  the  hand-writing  of 
God   on  the  heart.     Whatever  proceeds   from  it  thus,  will  bear  His 


1784]  REV,    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  Ill 

image  and  superscription.  He  will  know  it  as  His  own,  and  at  the  last 
day  openly  acknowledge  it  as  such  before  men  and  angels — This  fruit 
of  Love  is  the  mark  which  our  Apostle  everywhere  gives  for  the  trial  of 
faith  and  of  spirits.  The  fruits  of  the  spirit  are  "Love,  Joy,  Peace, 
Long-suffering,  Gentleness,  Goodness,  Meekness,  Temperance,  and  the 
like." 

He  thus  speaks  of  the  so-called  "  evangelical  party,"  whom 
Whitcfield  had  raised  up  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Zion  ;  part  of  which 
apostatized  into  Methodists,  and  part  of  which,  while  abandoning 
the  principles  of  the  Church,  still  remain  ostensibly  within  its  pale. 

Too  many,  letting  go  their  hold  of  the  form  of  sound  words,  and 
substituting,  or  mistaking,  mere  mechanical  motions — the  fervours  of 
heated  imagination — for  the  true  and  active  signs  of  Grace,  those  living 
impulses  of  God  on  the  soul,  are  often  carried  into  the  wildest  extrava- 
gances. Fetching  the  marks  of  their  religion  from  the  notions  of 
visionary  or  mystical  men,  instead  of  looking  for  them  in  the  life  and 
Gospel  of  Christ,  they  set  their  passions  to  work,  and  at  length 
persuade  or  terrify  themselves  into  all  those  experiences  and  feelings, 
which  pass,  in  their  Creed,  as  the  evidences  of  Salvation. 

Buoyed  up  by  such  strong  delusions,  they  think  "they  have  built 
their  mansions  among  the  Stars,  have  ascended  above  the  Moon,  and 
left  the  Sun  under  their  feet;"  while  they  are  still  but  like  their 
Kindred  Meteors  which,  having  scarce  mounted  to  the  middle  regions, 
are  precipitated  downwards  again  by  their  own  gross  and  earthly 
particles  !  A  devotion  worked  up  by  fervour,  whatever  proceeds  from 
the  mere  force  of  animal  spirits,  is  of  the  Earth,  earthy;  in  no  manner 
like  to  that  true  Spirit  of  Regeneration  which  is  of  the  Lord  from 
Heaven,  and  begets  the  divine  life  in  the  souls  of  men.  This  true 
celestial  warmth  will  never  be  extinguished,  being  of  an  immortal 
nature ;  and  when  once  vitally  seated  in  the  heart,  it  does  not  work  by 
fits  and  starts,  but  expands  itself  more  and  more,  regulating,  purifying 
and  exalting  the  whole  inward  man ! 

But  he  deals  equally  with  the  mere  formal  observers  of  religion. 

Although  it  is  of  great  importance,  that  we  adhere  to  the  Form  of 
sound  words,  as  our  text  directs  us ;  yet  we  must  not  halt  at  Forms,  or 
fundamental  Principles  and  Doctrines;  but  we  must  strive,  with  all  our 
might  and  zeal,  through  the  grace  given  us,  "  to  go  on  to  Perfection." 
Our  Faith  must  not  be  a  mere  empty  assent  to  the  truth,  but  the  Hold- 
ing the  Truth  in  Love.  It  is  Love  that  shews  our  Faith  to  be  genuine. 
By  this  it  must  work,  and  by  this  only  can  God  be  well  pleased.  For 
Love  flowing  from  Faith  is  the  Hand-writing  of  God  on  the  heart. 


112  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [l7S4 

Whatever  proceeds  from  it  will  bear  his  Image  and  Superscription.  He 
will  know  it  as  his  own,  and  openly  acknowledge  it  as  such,  before 
Men  and  Angels,  at  the  last  day. 

This  Fruit  of  Love  is  what  St.  Paul  everywhere  holds  up  for  the  trial 
of  our  Faith  and  Spirits— "The  Fruits  of  the  Spirit  are  Love,  Joy, 
Peace,  Long-Suffering,  Gentleness,  Goodness,  Meekness,  Temperance, 
and  the  like."  All  other  marks  of  the  Soundness  of  our  Faith,  except 
these  Gospel-marks,  namely,  the  Fruits  of  the  Spirit,  are  only  a  danger- 
ous ministration  of  fuel  for  inflammable  tempers,  or  of  despair  to  those 
of  a  contrary  frame. 

Come  we  now  to  his  immediate  subject.     He  continues : 

Why  need  I  spend  more  of  your  time  in  applying  the  doctrine  of  my 
Text  to  the  present  occasion  of  our  meeting? — an  occasion  (I  will  only 
add;  on  which  if  you  could  be  indulged  to  hear  the  voice  of  an  Apostle 
or  Angel  from  God,  he  would  preach  to  you  Love  and  Unity. 

Consider  that  you  are  members  of  a  Church,  which  is  acknowledged 
by  all  the  Christian  World  to  teach  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  and  to 
hold  fast  the  Form  of  sound  Words,  the  Faith  once  delivered  to  the 
Saints— a  Church  which  has  given  to  the  world  a  long  and  illustrious 
list  of  eminent  Divines,  pious  Preachers,  and  even  glorious  Confessors 
and  Martyrs  for  the  Truth,  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

But  in  this  country  at  present,  such  is  her  state  that  she  calls  for  the 
pious  assistance  and  united  support  of  all  her  true  Sons,  and  of  the 
friends  of  Christianity  in  general.  Besides  a  famine  of  the  preached 
word,  her  sound  Doctrines  are  deserted  by  many,  who  "turn  away 
their  ears  from  the  Truth,"  as  taught  by  her,  and  heap  to  themselves 

Teachers  as  described  in  the  Text Too  many  more  are  spoiled 

or  staggered  in  their  Faith  by  what  is  called  the  Free  and  Philosophic, 
but  more  truly,  the  loose  and  libertine  principles  of  the  present  day.* 
Many  others,  from  a  selfish  and  niggardly  spirit,  or  from  a  dissipation 
of  their  substance  in  luxury  and  intemperance,  will  not,  or  cannot, 
yield  the  mite  which  is  necessary  for  supporting  the  Ordinances  of 
Religion.  Thus  they  become  ashamed  to  appear  in  the  place  of  God's 
Worship,  leaving  the  burden  of  all  upon  a  few,  whose  conscience  and 
the  awful  dread  of  an  account  t6  be  given  hereafter,  will  not  suffer  them 
to  desert  their  Master's  Gospel,  to  renounce  their  Baptism,  and  trample 
under  foot  the  Blood  of  the  Covenant  wherewith  they  are  sanctified. 

Hence  religion  mourns,  and  the  houses  and  altars  of  God,  erected  by 
the  piety  of  our  Forefathers,  are  deserted  and  running  into  ruin.  The 
tempests  beat  and  the  winds  howl  through  the  shattered  roof,  and  moul- 

*  Even  in  1784  the  pernicious  infidelity  of  the  French  Revolution  waS  beginning  to 
show  itself. — II.  W.  S. 


17S4]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  1 1 3 

dering  walls  of  our  places  of  Worship ;  while  our  Burying-grounds  and 

Church-yards,  the  graves,  the  monuments,  and  the  bones  of  our  Fathers, 
Mothers,  Brothers,  Sisters,  Children  and  Friends,  are  left  open  and  un- 
protected from  the  P>easts  of  the  field;  as  if  all  our  care  was  only  to 
succeed  to  the  honours,  the  estates  and  places  of  emolument  which 
belonged  to  our  Friends  and  Ancestors,  without  any  regard  to  their 
Memories  or  venerable  Ashes  ! 

In  the  late  times  of  war,  distress  and  confusion,  there  might  be  some 
plea  for  this  reproach  of  our  Christian  name;  but  now,  with  the  blessed 
prospects  of  Peace,  Liberty,  Safety  and  future  Prosperity  before  us,  I 
trust  this  reproach  will  be  speedily  done  away;  to  which  nothing  can 
so  eminently  contribute  as  Love  and  Union  among  ourselves,  joined  to 
a  rational  and  enlightened  Zeal  and  public  Spirit.  For,  in  all  our  pur- 
suits, we  must  rest  at  plain  and  practical  points  at  last,  which  are  few  in 
number,  and  in  Religion  come  to  little  more  than  Solomon  declared, 
viz.  that  "the  Fear  of  God  and  keeping  his  Commandments  is  the 
whole  duty  of  Man;"  or,  in  all  the  Sciences,  what  another  wise  man 
declared  to  be  the  Sum  of  all  his  inquiries — that 

Temperance  is  the  best  Physic, 
Patience  the  best  Law, 
Charity  the  best  Divinity  ! 

O  Heaven-born  Charity !  what  excellent  things  are  spoken  of  thee ! 
What  a  transcendent  rank  was  assigned  thee,  when  the  Saviour  of  the 
World  gave  thee  as  the  badge  of  his  holy  Religion;  and  his  inspired 
Apostles  enthroned  thee  as  the  Queen  of  all  Evangelic  Graces  and  Vir- 
tues !  Could  the  tongues  of  men  or  of  angels  exalt  thee  more  than 
this — declaring — "That  neither  the  Martyr's  Zeal,  the  Self-denial  of 
the  Saint,  nor  all  Knowledge,  nor  any  Virtue  besides,  can  profit  or 
adorn  the  Man,  who  is  unadorned  with  thy  sweet  celestial  Garb!  But 
he  who  is  thus  adorned  is  the  most  august  human  spectacle  upon  earth — 
whom  even  Angels  behold  with  delight,  as  clothed  in  that  peculiar 
Garb  which  Christ  vouchsafed  to  wear  here  below,  and  which  shall  not 
need  to  be  put  off  above:  and  therefore,  if  on  every  slight  occasion,  or 
indeed  on  any  occasion,  we  cast  off  this  Garb,  we  are  none  his  true 
Disciples  ! 

Wherefore  then,  Brethren,  put  on  this  most  excellent  gift  of  Charity. 
Try  the  Faith  that  is  in  you  by  this  great  Test — Hold  fast  the  Form  of 
sound  Words,  the  holy  Scriptures,  the  pure  Doctrines,  the  excellent 
Forms  of  Prayer,  Praise  and  Thanksgiving,  drawn  from  Scripture  by 
our  Church — Hold  them  fast  in  Faith  working  by  Love.  Take  them 
for  your  perfect  rule  and  guide — They  will  make  you  wise  unto  Salva- 
tion— Whatever  is  imagined  more,  or  beyond  Scripture — all  that  is 
beside  final  Perfection  and  Salvation,   count   it  vain  and  superfluous. 


114  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1784 

Seek  not  to  be  wise  above  what  is  tvritten,  nor  establish  any  vain  imagi- 
nations of  your  own  for  the  sure  Form  of  sound  Words.  What  you 
have  received,  hold  fast  with  a  fervent  and  enlightened,  but  with  a  holy 
and  charitable,  Zeal.  Add  nothing,  diminish  nothing ;  but  let  this 
Lamp  of  God  shine  among  >ou  till  the  Day  Dawn,  till  the  Morning  of 
the  Resurrection;  and  walk  ye  in  the  Light  of  it,  not  kindling  any 
Sparkles  of  your  own  to  mix  with  its  pure  and  hallowed  Lustre. 

Let  not  your  best  State  too  much  elevate,  nor  your  worst  too  much 
depress,  you.  Whereunto  you  have  attained,  walk  ;  yet  sit  not  down 
with  attainments,  but  forgetting  what  is  behind,  press  still  forward, 
having  perfect  Holiness  in  your  eye  and  purpose. 

"  Remember  that  Faith  without  Works  is  dead.  Remember  that  Gcd 
commands  Works,  Grace  establishes  them,  Christ  died  to  confirm 
them,  the  Spirit  is  given  to  influence  them;  and  that,  without  a  holy, 
humble  and  peaceable  Life,  we  annul  the  Law,  abuse  the  Gospel,  tram- 
ple upon  Grace,  frustrate  the  end  of  Christ's  Death,  grieve  the  Spirit, 
dishonour  God,  and  give  the  lie  to  our  holy  Profession."  If  one  com- 
ing as  an  Apostle  or  as  an  Angel  from  Heaven,  were  to  preach  to  you 
any  other  Gospel  than  you  have  received,  I  trust,  you  would  say,  let 
him  not  be  believed. 

Thus,  with  the  Truth  in  our  Heads  and  Love  in  our  Hearts;  with 
Zeal  and  public  Spirit;  with  a  concern  for  Liberty,  Civil  and  Religious  ; 
with  Industry  and  Economy;  with  a  strict  care  for  the  Education  of 
Youth,  and  their  nurture  and  admonition  in  the  Fear  of  the  Lord;  this 
American  land  shall  become  a  great  and  glorious  Empire! — 

Hasten,  O  blessed  God,  hasten  this  glorious  period  of  thy  Son's 
Kingdom,  which  we  know  shall  yet  come!  And,  O  ye,  who  now  enjoy 
the  blessed  opportunity,  be  ye  the  happy  means  of  hastening  it.  Adorn 
by  your  lives  the  Divine  doctrines  which  you  profess  with  your  lips; 
that  the  Heathen  and  Unbeliever,  seeing  your  good  Works  may  be  the 
sooner  led  to  glorify  your  Father  who  is  in  Heaven !  * 

Bishop  White,  in  a  passage  of  his  memoirs,  which  we  quote 
here,  often  speaks  of  the  great  service  done  to  the  church  by  the 
last  two  conventions  in  Maryland,  to  which  we  have  referred,  and 
which  he  rightly  says  "were  chiefly  originated  and  conducted  by 
Dr.  Smith." 

*  This  sermon  was  published  at  the  time  with  the  following  dedication  : 
To  his  Excellency  |  William  Paca,  Esquire,  |  Governor  and  Commander  in  Chief 
of  the  State  of  |  Maryland,  &c.  |  The  following  Sermon  |  is  inscribed,  |  in  sincere 
testimony  and  acknowledgment,  |  as  well  of  his  public  zeal  and  regard  |  for  the  |  in- 
terests of  Religion  aud  Learning,  |  as  of  |  the  private  friendship  and  esteem,  |  with 
which,  I  from  an  early  period  of  his  life,  |  hath  subsisted  between  him,  |  and  his  most 
affectionate,  |  old  preceptor,  |  and  obedient  servant,  |  the  Author.  | 


1/84] 


REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D. 


115 


The  churches  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  being  now,  as  we 
have  said,  in  sufficient  accord,  and  their  principles  such,  in  the 
main,  as  churchmen  could  generally  admit,  the  general  conven- 
tion, which  the  clergy  and  laymen  who  had  been  at  New  Bruns- 
wick in  May  had  recommended  should  take  place  at  New  York, 
on  the  6th  of  October,  1784,  now  took  place.  There  came  to  this 
Convention 

From  Massachusetts  and  f  The  Rev_  Samud  parkef< 


Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut, 


New  York, 


Pennsylvania, 

New  Jersey, 

Delaware, 
Maryland, 


The  Rev.  J.  R.  Marshall. 
The  Rev.  Messrs.  Samuel  Provoost, 
Abraham  Beach,  Benjamin  Moore, 
Joshua  Bloomer,  Leonard  Cutting, 
I  and  Thomas  Moore,  with  the  Hon. 
James  Duane  and  Marinus  Millet 
and  John  Alsop,  Esquires. 

"The  Rev.  Drs.  White  and  Magaw, 

the     Rev.    Mr.     Joseph     Hutchins, 

\  with    Mathew    Clarkson,     Richard 

I  Willing,  Samuel  Powcl  and  Richard 

(^Peters,  Esquires. 

("The    Rev.  Uzal    Ogden,   John    De 

<  Hart,  Esq.,  John   Chetwood,   Esq., 
(  with  Mr.  Samuel  Spragg. 

( The    Revs.  Sydenham  Thorn   and 

<  Charles  Henry  Wharton,  with  Mr. 
(  Robert  Clay. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith. 


The  Rev.  David  Griffith  (afterwards  Bishop-elect  of  Virginia) 
was  present  by  permission,  but  not  as  a  delegate — the  clergy  of 
Virginia,  by  laws  of  that  State  then  in  force,  being  restricted  from 
sending  delegates. 

Of  this  body,  Dr.  Smith  was  chosen  President ;  the  Rev.  Benja- 
min Moore,  afterwards  the  excellent  and  honored  Bishop  of  New 
York,  being  the  secretary. 

The  body  recommended  to  the  clergy  and  congregations  of  their 
communion  in  the  States  represented  as  above,  and  proposed  to 
those  of  the  other  States  not  represented,  that  as  soon  as  they 
should  have  organized  themselves  in  the  States  to  which  they 
respectively   belonged,  agreeably  to    such    rules   as   they  should 


Il6  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  D784 

think  proper,  they  should    unite   in  a  General    Ecclesiastical 
Constitution  on  the  following  fundamental  principles  : 

I.  That  there  shall  be  a  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America. 

II.  That  the  Episcopal  Church  in  each  State  send  Deputies  to  the 
Convention,  consisting  of  Clergy  and  Laity. 

III.  That  associated  Congregations  in  two  or  more  States  may  send 
Deputies  jointly. 

IV.  That  the  said  church  shall  maintain  the  Doctrines  of  the  Gospel 
as  now  held  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  shall  adhere  to  the  Liturgy 
of  the  said  Church  as  far  as  shall  be  consistent  with  the  American 
Revolution  and  the  Constitutions  of  the  respective  States. 

V.  That  every  State  where  there  shall  be  a  Bishop  duly  consecrated 
and  settled,  he  shall  be  considered  as  a  member  of  the  Convention, 
ex-officio. 

VI.  That  the  Clergy  and  Laity  assembled  in  Convention,  shall  delib- 
erate in  one  Body,  but  shall  vote  separately ;  and  the  concurrence  of 
both  shall  be  necessary  to  give  validity  to  every  measure. 

VII.  That  the  first  meeting  of  the  Convention  shall  be  at  Philadel- 
phia, the  Tuesday  before  the  Feast  of  St.  Michael  next;  to  which  it  is 
hoped,  and  earnestly  desired,  that  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  their 
respective  States  will  send  their  clerical  and  lay  Deputies  herein 
proposed  for  their  Deliberation. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  essay  the  fundamental  principles 
of  a  general  constitution. 

The  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  :  The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith, 
Rev.  Dr.  White,  Rev.  Mr.  Parker,  Rev.  Mr.  Provoost,  Mr.  Clarkson, 
Mr.  De  Hart,  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Duane ;  and  they  were  likewise 
desired  to  frame  and  propose  to  the  Convention  a  proper  substitute 
for  the  State  prayers  in  the  liturgy,  to  be  used  for  the  sake  of 
uniformity,  till  a  further  review  should  be  undertaken  by  general 
authority  and  consent  of  the  Church — Dr.  Smith  was  chairman  of 
this  important  Committee. 

While  at  this  Convention  of  the  Church,  in  October,  1784,  Dr. 
Smith,  with  its  other  trustees,  continued  the  good  work,  which 
had  been  begun  in  May  of  the  same  year,  of  re-establishing  the 
corporation  for  the  relief  of  the  widows  and  children  of  the  clergy. 
The  historian  of  the  corporation  says:* 


*  John    William   Wallace,    LL.  D.,  in  "A    Century  of    Beneficence— 1769-1^ 
Philadelphia,  1869,  pp.  41,  42,  43. 


I/84]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    £>.    D.  \\J 

"The  late  president,  Dr.  Peters,  having  died  July  10th,  1776,  and  it 
being  now  proposed  to  appoint  a  chairman  to  open  business,  Dr.  Smith 
was  chosen  for  that  purpose.  The  Rev.  Benjamin  Moore,  afterwards 
the  venerable  Bishop  Moore,  of  New  York,  acted  as  the  secretary.  The 
first  thing  was  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  three  clerical  and 
three  lay  members — Drs.  Smith,  White  and  Provoost,  being  appointed 
from  the  former,  and  Messrs.  Duane,  Peters  and  Livingston,  from  the 
latter — '  to  examine  into  the  affairs  of  this  Corporation  since  the  last 
meeting  at  Philadelphia,  on  Tuesday  after  the  feast  of  St.  Michael,  in 
the  year  1775,  and  to  report  thereon  as  soon  as  may  be.'  Having 
adjourned  to  attend  divine  service  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  New  York,  on 
Wednesday  the  6th,  where  the  annual  sermon  was  preached  by  Dr. 
Magaw,  the  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Philadelphia,  the  Corpora- 
tion then  afterwards  proceeded  to  ballot  for  twenty-nine  new  members. 
Their  names  appear  upon  the  roll  of  corporators,  under  the  date  of 
1784.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  names  of  General  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton, then  in  his  27th  year,  and  of  John  Jay,  among  those  from  New 
York,  and  of  both  Robert  and  Gouverneur  Morris,  among  those  from 
Pennsylvania.  Officers  were  also  elected  ;  Dr.  Smith,  now  venerable 
for  his  years,  and  deserving  such  honor  from  his  long  and  great  service 
to  the  Society,  was  appointed  president ;  and  the  Rev.  Benjamin 
Moore,  already  mentioned,  secretary.  The  treasurers  were,  for  New 
York,  John  Alsop ;  for  New  Jersey,  Joshua  Maddox  Wallace ;  and  for 
Pennsylvania,  Samuel  Powel — this  last  reappointed.  Standing  com- 
mittees of  correspondence,  and  for  obtaining  an  alteration  and  confir- 
mation of  the  charter,  were  also  elected — Dr.  White  and  Mr.  Peters, 
for  Pennsylvania;  Messrs.  John  Stevens  and  J.  M.  Wallace,  for  New 
Jersey;  and  Messrs.  Duane,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  with  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Provoost,  for  New  York — the  first  and  second  named  gentlemen  in 
regard  to  the  charter,  and  the  first  and  third  as  a  standing  committee. 

"  Dr.  Smith,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  meeting  at  New  York, 
remained  behind  in  that  city  to  preach  there  on  the  following  Sunday, 
both  morning  and  afternoon,  which  he  did  with  so  good  effect  as  to 
have  added  ^112  lgs.  lod.  to  the  corporate  moneys." 


Il8  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  THE  [1785 


CHAPTER    XLVI. 

Convention  of  the  Church  in  Seven  States,  held  a.  d.  1785,  at  Christ 
Church  in  Philadelphia — Dr.  Smith  Chairman  of  a  Committee  to  make 
a  Review  of  and  Further  Alterations,  with  Additions  to  the  Lit- 
urgy— The  Thirty-nine  Articles  Presented  in  a  Condensed  Form — 
The  Alterations,  Additions  and  Condensation  Adopted  by  the  Con- 
vention— The  Whole  Ordered  to  be  Printed  in  a  Book — The  Proposed 
Book — Dr.  Smith  Requested  to  Preach  a  Sermon  at  the  Close  of  the 
Convention  suited  to  the  Solemn  Occasion — He  does  so — Extracts 
from  the  Sermon — Dr.  White,  Dr.  Smith  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  C.  H. 
Wharton,  at  this  time  of  New  Castle,  Delaware,  but  better  known 
afterwards  as  Dr.  Wharton,  of  Burlington,  N.  J.,  appointed  a  Com- 
mittee to  see  the  Proposed  Book  through  the  Press. 

As  will  have  been  observed  by  the  reader,  the  fourth  funda- 
mental article  adopted  by  the  Convention  of  1784*  laid  down  as 
a  principle  that  the  church  in  America  should  adhere  to  the  liturgy 
of  the  Church  of  England,  so  far  as  should  be  consistent  with 
the  American  Revolution  and  the  constitutions  of  the  respective 
States ;  and  the  power  entrusted  by  the  same  Convention,  to  the 
committee  of  which  Dr.  Smith  was  chairman,  was  confined,  of 
course,  to  framing  and  proposing  a  proper  substitute  for  the  State 
prayers,  to  be  used  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  till  a  further  review 
should  be  undertaken  by  general  authority  and  consent  of  the 
church. 

Dr.  Smith,  I  think  it  probable,  was  the  person  chiefly  desirous 
of  a  further  considerable  review,  and  the  person  chiefly  active  in 
bringing  on  a  discussion  concerning  the  change,  and  in  suggesting 
and  introducing  the  particulars  of  it.  The  prospect  which  was 
held  out,  in  the  language  by  which  the  committee  was  constituted, 
led,  no  doubt,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Convention  of  New 
York,  October  6th  and  7th,  1784,  to  a  good  deal  of  consideration 
and  conversation  upon  the  subject  by  churchmen  who  were  pre- 
sent and  assisted  at  that  convention,  before  the  next  convention 
was  held ;  that  is  to  say,  before  the  27th  of  September,  1785,  when 
this  next  convention  met  in  Philadelphia. 

*  See  supra,  p.  107. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  I  1 9 

This  Philadelphia  Convention  of  1785  appointed  a  committee, 
of  which  Dr.  Smith  was  again  the  chairman,  "to  considei  of  and 
report  such  alterations  in  the  liturgy  as  shall  render  it  consistent 
with  the  American  Revolution  and  the  constitutions  of  the  respec- 
tive States,  and  such  further  alterations  in  the  liturgy  as  it  may  be 
advisable  for  this  Convention  to  recommend." 

This  committee,  which  was  in  part  clerical,  and  in  part  lay,  was 
thus  composed  : 

r      M        ,,  f  The  Rev.  Mr.  Provoost  and  the  Hon. 

For  New  \  ork,  -  ,T     ^ 

'  [  Mr.  Duane. 

"    New  Jersey,  The  Rev.  Mr.  Beach  and  Mr.  Dennis. 

"    Pennsylvania,  The  Rev.  Dr.  White  and  Mr.  Peters. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Wharton  and  Mr. 
Sykes. 

The     Rev.     Dr.     Smith     and     Dr. 


Delaware. 


t.t  f  ihe     Rev.     D 

MAR^LAXD-  {  Cradock. 

Virginia,  The  Rev.  Mr.  ( 

c  r  /The  Rev.  Dr.  I 

South  Carolina,  j  Mf  Read 


Virginia,  The  Rev.  Mr.  Griffith  and  Mr.  Page. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Purcell  and  the  Hon. 


This  committee  made  frequent  reports.  It  having  been  resolved 
by  this  Convention  that  the  4th  of  July  should  be  forever  ob- 
served as  a  day  of  Thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  the  in- 
estimable blessings  of  Religious  and  Civil  Liberty  vouchsafed  to 
the  United  States  of  America,  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Smith,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Magaw,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wharton  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Campbell,  were  appointed  to  prepare  the  proper  form  of 
prayer  and  thanksgiving. 

The  alterations  which,  according  to  a  record  left  us  by  Bishop 
White  in  his  Memoirs,*  were  resolved  on,  and  the  alteration  pro- 
posed and  recommended  by  the  General  Convention  of  1785 — 
General  we  call  it,  though  no  churches  from  the  New  England 
States  were  represented — were  these.  They  were  made  after 
reports  from  the  committee  : 

I.  Alterations  agreed  on  and  confirmed  in  Convention,  for  rendering  the 
Liturgy  conformable  to  the  pri?iciples  of  the  American  Revolution,  and 
the  constitutions  of  the  several  States. 

*  Second  Edition.     New  York,  1836,  page  363. 


120  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    'J HE  [  I  785 

1st.  That  in  the  suffrages  after  the  Creed,  instead  of 
0  Lord,  save  the  King, 

be  said : 

O  Lord,  bless  and  preserve  these  United  States. 

2d.  That  the  prayer  for  the  Royal  family,  in  the  morning  and 
evening  service,  be  omitted. 

3d.  That  in  the  Litany  the  15th,  16th,  17th  and  18th  petitions  be 
omitted,  and  that  instead  of  the  20th  and  21st  petitions,  be  substituted 
the  following : 

That  it  may  please  Thee  to  endue  the  Congress  of  these  United  States,  and  all 
others  in  authority,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial,  with  grace,  wisdom  and  under- 
standing, to  execute  justice  and  to  maintain  truth. 

4th.  That  when  the  Litany  is  not  said,  the  prayer  for  the  high  court 
of  Parliament  be  thus  altered: 

Most  gracious  God,  we  humbly  beseech  Thee,  as  for  these  United  States  in  general, 
so  especially  for  their  delegates  in  Congress,  that  thou  wouldest  be  pleased  to  direct 
and  prosper  all  their  consultations  to  the  advancement  of  thy  glory,  the  good  of  thy 
Church,  the  safety,  honour,  and  welfare  of  thy  people,  that  all  things  may  be  so 
ordered  and  settled  by  their  endeavors  upon  the  best  and  surest  foundations,  that  peace 
and  happiness,  truth  and  justice,  religion  and  piety,  may  be  established  among  us  for 
all  generations,  &c,  to  the  end. 

And  the  prayer  for  the  king's  majesty,  altered  as  follows,  viz.: 

O  Lord,  our  heavenly  Father,  the  high  and  mighty  Ruler  of  the  universe,  who  dost 
from  thy  Throne  behold  all  the  Dwellers  upon  Earth  ;  we  most  heartily  beseech  thee, 
with  thy  Favour  to  behold  all  in  Authority,  legislative,  executive  and  judicial  in  these 
United  States;  and  so  replenish  them  with  the  Grace  of  thy  holy  Spirit,  that  they  may 
alway  incline  to  thy  will  and  walk  in  thy  way.  Endue  them  plenteously  with  heavenly 
Gifts,  grant  them  in  Health  and  Wealth  long  to  live  and,  that  after  this  Life,  they  may 
attain  everlasting  Joy  and  Felicity,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

5th.  That  the  1st  Collect  for  the  King  in  the  Communion  Service 
be  omitted :  and  that  the  second  be  altered  as  follows — instead  of 

The  hearts  of  Kings  are  in  thy  rule  and  governance, 
be  said  : 

That  the  hearts  of  all  Rulers  are  in  thy  governance,  &c. ; 

and  instead  of  the  words 

heart  of  George  thy  servant, 
insert, 

so  to  direct  the  Rulers  of  these  States,  that  in  all  their  thoughts,  &c. — ■ 
changing  the  singular  pronouns  to  the  plural. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  121 

6th.   That  in  the  answer  in  the  Catechism  to  the  question, 

What  is  thy  duty  towards  thy  neighbour? 
for, 

to  honour  and  obey  the  king, 

be  substituted 

to  honour  and  obey  my  civil  rulers,  to  submit  myself,  &c. 

7th.  That  in  the  Forms  of  Prayer  to  be  used  at  Sea,  in  the  Prayer 
"  O  eternal  God,  iSrc,"  instead  of  these  Words, 

unto  our  most  gracious  Sovereign  Lord  King  George  and  his  Kingdoms, 

be  inserted  the  Words, 

to  the  United  States  of  America  ; 

and  that  instead  of  the  Word  "  Island  "  be  inserted  the  Word  "  Coun- 
try ; "  and  in  the  collect  "O  Almighty  God,  the  Sovereign  Command- 
er," be  omitted  the  Words,  "the  Honour  of  our  Sovereign,"  and 
the  Words  "  the  Honour  of  our  Country  "  inserted. 

8th.  That  instead  of  the  observation  of  the  5th  of  November,  the 
30th  of  January,  the  29th  of  May,  and  the  25th  of  October,  the  follow- 
ing service  be  used  on  the  4th  of  July,  being  the  Anniversary  of 
Independence. 

Service  for  the  4  th  of  duly. 

With  the  Sentences  before  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer. 

The  Lord  hath  been  mindful  of  us,  and  he  shall  bless  us,  he  shall  bless  them  that 
fear  him,  both  small  and  great.  O  that  men  would  therefore  praise  the  Lord,  for  his 
goodness,  and  declare  the  wonders  that  he  doeth  for  the  children  of  men. 

Hymn  instead  of  the  Venite. 

My  song  shall  be  alway  of  the  loving  kindness  of  the  Lord  :  with  my  mouth  will  I 
ever  be  showing  forth  his  truth  from  one  generation  to  another.     Psal.  Ixxxix.  I. 

The  merciful  and  gracious  Lord  hath  so  done  his  marvellous  works  :  that  they 
ought  to  be  had  in  remembrance.     Psal.  cxi.  4. 

Who  can  express  the  noble  acts  of  the  Lord  :  or  show  forth  all  his  praise.  Psal. 
cvi.  2. 

The  works  of  the  Lord  are  great :  sought  out  of  all  them  that  have  pleasure  therein. 
Psal.  cxi.  2. 

For  he  will  not  alway  be  chicling :  neither  keepeth  he  his  anger  forever.  Psal. 
ciii.  9. 

He  hath  not  dealt  with  us  after  our  sins:  nor  rewarded  us  according  to  our  wicked- 
ness.    Verse  10. 

For  look  how  high  the  heaven  is  in  comparison  of  the  earth  ;  so  great  is  his  mercy 
toward  them  that  fear  him.     Verse  11. 

Yea,  like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  own  children :  even  so  is  the  Lord  merciful  unto 
them  that  fear  him.     Verse  11. 


122  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

Thou,  O  God,  hast  proved  us  :  thou  also  hast  tried  us,  like  as  silver  is  tried.  Psal. 
lxvi.  9. 

Thou  didst  remember  us  in  our  low  estate,  and  redeem  us  from  our  enemies  :  for  thy 
mercy  endureth  forever.     Psal.  cxxxvi.  23,  24. 

Proper-  Psalms,  cxviii.  except  v.  10,  II,  12,  13,  22,  23,  and  to  conclude  with  v.  24. 

I.  Lesson,  Deut.  viii.     2.  Lesson,  Thess.  v.  verses  12-23  both  inclusive. 

Collect  for  the  Day. 

Almighty  God,  who  hast  in  all  ages  showed  forth  thy  power  and  mercy  in  the  won- 
derful preservation  of  thy  church,  and  in  the  protection  of  every  nation  and  people 
professing  thy  holy  and  eternal  truth,  and  putting  their  sure  trust  in  thee  ;  we  yield  thee 
our  unfeigned  thanks  and  praise  for  all  thy  public  mercies,  and  more  especially  for 
that  signal  and  wonderful  manifestation  of  thy  providence  which  we  commemorate 
this  day ;  wherefore  not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  Name  be  ascribed 
all  honour  and  glory,  in  all  churches  of  the  Saints,  from  generation  to  generation, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

A  Thanksgiving   for   the   Day,  to   ee  said  after  the    General 

Thanksgiving. 

O  God,  whose  name  is  excellent  in  all  the  earth,  and  thy  glory  above  the  heavens; 
who  as  on  this  day  didst  inspire  and  direct  the  hearts  of  our  delegates  in  Congress,  to 
lay  the  perpetual  foundations  of  peace,  liberty,  and  safety;  we  bless  and  adore  thy 
glorious  Majesty,  for  this  thy  loving  kindness  and  providence.  And  we  humbly  pray 
that  the  devout  sense  of  this  signal  mercy  may  renew  and  increase  in  us  a  spirit  of  love 
and  thankfulness  to  thee  its  only  Author,  a  spirit  of  peaceable  submission  to  the  laws 
and  government  of  our  country,  and  a  spirit  of  fervent  zeal  for  our  holy  religion,  which 
thou  hast  preserved  and  secured  to  us  and  our  posterity.  May  we  improve  these  ines- 
timable blessings  for  the  advancement  of  religion,  liberty  and  science  throughout  this 
land,  till  the  wilderness  and  solitary  place  be  made  glad  through  us,  and  the  desert 
rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose.  This  we  beg  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ  our 
Saviour.     Amen.* 

II.  Alterations  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration 
of  the  Sacraments,  and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  ac- 
cording to  the  use  of  the  Church  of  England,  proposed  and  recommended 
to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

In  the  Order  for  Morning  and  Evening,  service  Daily  throughout  the 
Year. 

1st.  The  following  Sentences  of  Scripture  are  ordered  to  be  prefixed 
to  the  usual  Sentences,  viz. : 

The  Lord  is  in  his  Holy  Temple;  let  all  the  Earth  keep  Silence  before  him.  Hab. 
ii.  20. 

*  The  Epistle  and  the  Gospel  were  added  by  the  Committee,  afier  the  Convention 
had  adjourned,  agreeably  to  an  authority  which  they  conceived  lobe  vested  in  them, 
in  the  appointment  made  by  the  Convention  of  them  to  see  the  proposed  book  through 
the  press. 


I785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  I2J 

From  the  Rising  of  the  Sun  even  unto  the  going  down  of  the  Same,  my  Name  shall 
be  great  among  the  Gentiles;  and  in  every  Place  Incense  shall  be  offered  unto  my 
Name,  and  a  pure  Offering  :  for  my  Name  shall  be  great  among  the  Heathen,  saith 
the  Lord  of  Hosts.     Mai.  i.  II. 

Let  the  words  of  my  Mouth,  and  the  meditation  of  my  Heart,  be  alway  acceptable  in 
thy  sight,  O  Lord,  my  Strength  and  my  Redeemer.     Psal.  xix.  14. 

2d.  That  the  Rubric  preceding  the  Absolution  be  altered  thus : 

A  declaration  to  be  made  by  the  Minister  alone,  standing,  concerning  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins. 

3d.  That  in  the  Lord's  prayer,  the  word  "who"  be  substituted  in 
lieu  of  "which;"  and  that  "those  who  trespass"  stand  instead  of 
"them  that  trespass." 

4th.  That  the  "  Gloria  Patri"  be  omitted  after  the  "O  come  let  us 
sing,  &c,"  and  in  every  other  place,  where,  by  the  present  Rubric,  it 
is  ordered  to  be  inserted,  to  "the  end  of  the"  reading  psalms;  when 
shall  be  said  or  sung  "Gloria  Patri,  &c,"  or,  "Glory  be  to  God  on 
high,  and  in  earth  peace  and  good  will  towards  men,  &c,"  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  Minister. 

5th.  That  in  the  "  Te  Deum"  instead  of 

honourable 

it  be 

adorable,  true,  and  only  Son, 
and  instead  of 

didst  not  abhor  the  Virgin's  womb, 

it  be 

didst  humble  thyself  to  be  born  of  a  pure  Virgin. 

6th.  That  until  a  proper  selection  of  Psalms  be  made,  each  Minister 
be  allowed  to  use  such  as  he  may  choose. 

7th.   That  the  same  liberty  be  allowed,  respecting  the  lessons. 

8th.  That  the  article  in  the  Apostles'  creed  "  He  descended  into  hell" 
be  omitted. 

9th.   That  the  Athanasian  and  the  Nicene  creeds  be  entirely  omitted. 

10th.  That  after  the  response  "and  with  thy  spirit,"  all  be  omitted 
to  the  words  "O  Lord  show  thy  mercy  upon  us;"  which  the  Minister 
shall  pronounce,  still  kneeling. 

nth.  That  in  the  suffrage  "make  thy  chosen  people  joyful,"  the 
word  "chosen"  be  omitted;  and  also  the  following  suffrages,  to  "O 
God,  make  clean  our  hearts  within  us." 

12th.  That  the  Rubric  after  these  words  "and  take  not  thy  Holy 
Spirit  from  us,"  be  omitted.  Then  the  two  collects  to  be  said  :  in  the 
collect  for  grace,  the  words  "be  ordered,"  to  be  omitted;  and  the 
word  "be"  inserted,  instead  of  "to  do  alway  that  is." 


124  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

13th.   In  the  collect  "for  the  Clergy  and  People,"  read — 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  send  down  upon  all  Bishops  and  other  Pastors,  and 
the  Congregations  committee,  &c,  to  the  end. 

14th.* 

15th.  That  the  Lord's  prayer  after  the  Litany,  and  the  subsequent 
Rubric  be  omitted. 

16th.   That  the  short  Litany  be  read  as  follows: 

Son  of  God,  we  beseech  thee  to  hear  us.  Son  of  God,  we  beseech  thee  to  hear  us. 
O  Lamb  of  God,  that  takest  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  Grant  us  thy  peace.  O  Christ, 
hear  us.  Lord,  have  lr.ercy  upon  us  and  deal  not  with  us  according  to  our  sins, 
neither  reward  us  according  to  our  iniquities. 

After  which,  omit  the  words — "  Let  us  pray." 

17th.  That  the  "Gloria  Patri,"  after  "O  Lord  arise,  &c,"  be 
omitted  ;  as  also  "  Let  us  pray,"  after  "  we  put  our  trust  in  thee." 

1 8th.   That  in  the  following  prayer,  instead  of 

righteously  have  deserved, 

it  be 

justly  have  deserved. 

19th.  That  in  the  1st  warning  for  the  Communion,  the  word  "damna- 
tion," following  these  words  "increase  your,  &c,"  be  read  "condemna- 
tion ;  "  and  the  two  paragraphs  after  these  words  "or  else  come  not  to 
that  holy  table,"  be  omitted  ;  and  the  following  one  be  read : 

and  if  there  be  any  of  you,  who  by  these  means,  cannot  quiet  their  conscience,  &c. 

The  words  "learned  and  discreet,"  epithets  given  to  the  ministers,  to 
be  also  omitted. 

20th.   In  the  exhortation  to  the  communion,  let  it  run  thus: 

For  as  the  benefit  is  great,  &c,  to  drink  his  blood,  so  is  the  danger  great,  if  we  re- 
ceive the  same  unworthily.     Judge  therefore  yourselves,  &c. 

21st.   That  in  the  rubric  preceding  the  absolution,  instead  of 

pronounce  this  absolution, 

it  be 

Then  shall  the  minister  stand  up,  and  turning  to  the  people  say,  &c. 

22d.  That  in  the  baptism  of  infants,  parents  may  be  admitted  as 
sponsDrs. 

23d.  That  the  minister,  in  speaking  to  the  sponsors,  after  these  words 

*  Here  is  an  erasure  from  the  manuscript :  the  article  being  found  a  repetition  of  part 
of  the  4th.      Vide  White's  Memoirs,  p.  367,  where  "  13th"  is  a  misprint  for  "  4th." 


1785]  ' XEV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 25 

"vouchsafe  to   release   him,"    say,    ''release   him   from  sin."     In   the 
second  prayer,  instead  of 

remission  of  his  sins, 

read 

remission  of  sin. 

24th.  That  in  the  questions  addressed  to  the  sponsors,  and  the  an- 
swers, instead  of  the  present  Form,  it  b.  as  follows: 

the  sinful  desires  of  the  flesh. 
25  th. 

Dost  thou  believe  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  as  contained  in  the  Apostles' 
creed,  and  wilt  thou  endeavour  to  have  this  child  instructed  accordingly?  Answer:  I 
do  believe  them,  and,  by  God's  help,  will  endeavour  so  to  do. 

Will  thou  endeavour  to  have  him  brought  up  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  to  obey  God's 
holy  will  and  commandments?     Answer:   I  will,  by  God's  assistance. 

26th.  That  the  sign  of  the  cross  may  be  omitted,  if  particularly  de- 
sired by  the  Sponsors  or  Parents,  and  the  prayer  to  be  thus  altered  (by 
the  direction  of  a  short  rubric) : 

We  receive  this  child  into  the  congregation  of  Christ's  flock ;  and  pray  that  here- 
after he  may  never  be  ashamed,  &c,  to  the  end. 

27th.  That  the  address,  "seeing  now  dearly  beloved,  £:c,"  be 
omitted. 

28th.  That  the  prayer  after  the  Lord's  prayer  be  thus  changed  : 

We  yield  thee  hearty  thanks,  &c, 

to 

receive  this  Infant  as  thine  own  child  by  baptism,  and  to  incorporate  him,  &c. 

29th.  That  in  the  following  exhortation,  the  words  "to  renounce  the 
devil  and  all  his  works,"  and  in  the  charge  to  the  sponsors,  the  words 
"vulgar  tongue"  be  omitted. 

30th.  That  the  forms  of  private  baptism  and  of  confirmation  be 
made  conformable  to  these  alterations. 

31st.  That  in  the  exhortation  before  matrimony,  all  between  these 
words  "holy  matrimony,"  and  "therefore  if  any  man,  &:c.,"  be  omitted. 

32d.  That  the  words  "I  plight  thee  my  troth"  be  omitted  in  both 
places  ;  and  also  the  words  "  with  my  body  I  thee  worship  ;  "  and  also 
"  pledged  their  troth  either  to  other." 

33d.   That  all  after  the  blessing  be  omitted. 

34th.  In  the  burial  service,  instead  of  the  two  Psalms,  take  the  fol- 
lowing verses  of  both,  viz.  :  Psalm  xxxix.,  verses  6,  7,  8,  9,  12,  13,  and 
Psalm  xc,  to  verse  13.  In  the  rubric,  the  words  "  unbaptized  or"  to 
be  omitted. 


126  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

For  the  Declaration  and  form  of  interment,  beginning  "  Forasmuch 
as,  &c,"  insert  the  following,  viz. : 

Forasmuch  as  it  hath  pleased  Almighty  God,  in  his  wise  Providence,  to  take  out  of 
this  world  the  soul  of  our  deceased  brother  (sister)  lying  now  before  us;  We  therefore 
commit  his  (her)  body  to  the  ground,  earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust;  (thus 
at  sea — to  the  deep  to  be  turned  into  corruption)  looking  for  the  general  resurrection 
in  the  last  day,  and  the  life  of  the  world  to  come,  thro'  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  at  whose 
second  coming  in  glorious  Majesty,  to  judge  the  world,  the  earth  and  the  sea  shall  give 
up  their  dead;  and  the  corruptible  bodies  of  those  who  sleep  in  him  shall  be  changed, 
and  made  like  unto  his  own  glorious  body,  according  to  the  mighty  working,  whereby 
he  is  able  to  subdue  all  things  unto  Himself. 

In  the  sentence  "I  heard  a  voice,  &c,"  insert  "who"  for  "which." 

The  prayer  following  the  Lord's  prayer  to  be  omitted.  In  the  next 
collect,  leave  out  the  words  "as  our  hope  is,  this  our  brother  doth." 
For  "them  that,"  insert  "those  who." 

35th.  In  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  instead  of  the  absolution  as  it  now 
stands,  insert  the  declaration  of  forgiveness  which  is  appointed  for  the 
communion  service;  or  either  of  the  collects,  which  are  taken  from  the 
Commination  office,  and  appropriated  to  Ash  Wednesday,  maybe  used. 

In  the  Psalm,  omit  the  3d,  6th,  8th,  9th,  and  nth  verses.  In  the 
Commendatory  prayer,  for  "miserable  and  naughty,"  say  "vain  and 
miserable."     Strike  out  the  word  "purged." 

In  the  prayer  "for  persons  troubled  in  mind,"  omit  all  that  stands 
between  the  words  "afflicted  servant,"  and  "his  soul  is  full,  &c," 
and  instead  thereof  say  "  afflicted  servant,  whose  soul  is  full  of  trouble," 
and  strike  out  the  particle  "but,"  and  proceed,  "O merciful  God,  &c." 

36th.  A  form  of  Prayer  and  visitation  of  Prisoners  for  notorious 
crimes,  and  especially  persons  under  sentence  of  death,  being  much 
wanted,  the  form  entitled  "  Prayers  for  persons  under  sentence  of 
death,  agreed  upon  in  a  Synod  of  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  the 
rest  of  the  clergy  of  Ireland,  at  Dublin,  in  the  year  1 71 1,"  as  it  now 
stands  in  the  book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  Ireland,  rs 
agreed  upon,  and  ordered  to  be  adopted,  with  the  following  alterations, 
viz. : 

For  the  absolution,  take  the  same  declaration  of  forgiveness,  or  either 
of  the  collects  above  directed  for  the  visitation  of  the  sick.  The  short 
collect  "O  Saviour  of  the  world,  &c,"  to  be  left  out ;  and  for  the  word 
"frailness,"  say  "frailty." 

37th.  In  the  Catechism,  besides  the  alteration  respecting  the  civil 
Powers,  alter  as  follows,  viz. : 

Q. — What  is  your  name  ? 

A.— N.  M. 

Q. — When  did  you  receive  this  name? 

A. I  received  it  in  Baptism,  whereby  I  became  a  member  of  the  Christian  church. 


1785]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 27 

Q. — What  was  promised  for  you  in  Baptism  ? 

A. — That  I  should  be  instructed  to  believe  the  Christian  faith,  as  contained  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  and  to  obey  God's  holy  will,  and  keep  his  commandments. 

Q. — Dost  thou  think  thou  art  bound  to  believe  all  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith, 
as  contained  in  this  creed,  and  to  obey  God's  holy  will  and  keep  his  commandments? 

A. — Yes,  verily,  &c. 

Instead  of  the  words  "verily,  and  indeed  taken,"  say — "spiritually 
taken." 

Answer  to  Question  "How  many  sacraments ?  "  "  Two,  Baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper." 

38th.  Instead  of  a  particular  Service  for  the  churching  of  women  and 
psalms,  the  following  special  prayer  is  to  be  introduced,  after  the 
General  Thanksgiving,  viz.  :  This  to  be  said,  when  any  woman  desires 
tc  return  thanks,  ccc. 

O  Almighty  God,  we  give  thee  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks,  for  that  thou  hast 
been  graciously  pleased  to  preserve  this  woman,  thy  servant,  through  the  great  pains 
and  perils  of  childbirth.  Incline  her,  we  beseech  thee,  to  show  forth  her  thankfulness, 
for  this  thy  great  mercy,  not  only  with  her  lips,  but  by  a  holy  and  virtuous  life.  Be 
pleased,  O  God,  so  to  establish  her  health,  that  she  may  lead  the  remainder  of  he 
days  to  thy  honour  and  glory,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

39th.  The  Commination  office  for  Ash  Wednesday  to  be  discontinued, 
and  therefore  the  three  collects,  the  first  beginning — "  O  Lord,  we 
beseech  thee," — 2d,  "  O  most  mighty  God," — 3d,  "Turn  us,  O  Good 
Lord,"  shall  be  continued  among  the  occasional  prayers;  and  used 
after  the  collect  on  Ash  Wednesday,  and  on  such  other  occasions  as  the 
minister  shall  think  fit. 

///.  Articles  of  Religion, 

1.  Of  Faith  in  the  Holy  Trinity. 

There  is  but  one  living,  true,  and  eternal  God,  the  Father  Almighty; 
without  body,  parts  or  passions ;  of  infinite  power,  wisdom  and  good- 
ness;  the  maker  and  preserver  of  all  things  both  visible  and  invisible: 
and  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  begotten  of  the  Father  before 
all  worlds,  very  and  true  God  ;  who  came  down  from  heaven,  took 
man's  nature  in  the  womb  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  her  substance,  and 
was  God  and  man  in  one  person,  whereof  is  one  Christ;  who  truly 
suffered,  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried,  to  reconcile  his  Father  to  us, 
and  to  be  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  all  men  ;  He  rose  again  from  death, 
ascended  into  heaven,  and  there  sitteth  until  he  shall  return  to  judge  the 
world  at  the  last  day:  and  one  Holy  Spirit,  the  Lord  and  giver  of  life, 
of  the  same  divine  nature  with  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

?..  Of  the  Sufficiency  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  for  Salvation. 

Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things  necessary  to  salvation  :  so  that 
whatsoever  is  not  read  therein  :  nor  may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to 


128  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

be  required  of  any  man,  that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article  of  the 

Faith,  or  be  thought  requisite  or  necessary  to  salvation.  In  the  name 

of  the  Holy  Scriptures  we  do  understand  the  canonical  books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament. 

Of  the  names  and  members  of  the  canonical  Books. 

Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deuteronomy,  Joshua,  Judges, 
Ruth,  The  1st  Book  of  Samuel,  The  2d  Book  of  Samuel,  The  1st  Book 
of  Kings,  The  2d  Book  of  Kings,  The  1st  Book  of  Chronicles,  The  2d 
Book  of  Chronicles,  The  1st  Book  of  Esdras,  The  2d  Book  of  Esdras, 
The  Book  of  Hester,  The  Book  of  Job,  The  Psalms,  The  Proverbs, 
Ecclesiastes  or  Preacher,  Cantica  or  Songs  of  Solomon,  Four  Prophets 
the  greater,  Twelve  Prophets  the  less. 

And  the  other  books  the  Church  doth  read  for  example  of  life,  and 
instruction  of  manners  ;  but  yet  doth  it  not  apply  them  to  establish  any 
doctrine;  such  are  these  following: 

The  3d  Book  of  Esdras,  The  4th  Book  of  Esdras,  The  Book  of  Tobias, 
The  Book  of  Judith,  The  rest  of  the  Book  cf  Hester,  The  Book  of  Wis- 
dom, Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach,  Baruch  the  Prophet,  The  Song  of  the 
three  Children,  The  Story  of  Susanna,  Of  Bell  and  the  Dragon,  The 
Prayer  of  Manasses,  The  1st  Book  of  Maccabees,  The  2d  Book  of 
Maccabees. 

All  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  as  they  are  commonly  received, 
we  do  receive  and  account  them  canonical. 

3.  Of  the  Old  and  New  Testament. 

There  is  a  perfect  harmony  and  agreement  between  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New;  for  in  both,  everlasting  life  is  offered  to  mankind 
by  Christ,  who  is  the  only  mediator  between  God  and  man  ;  being  both 
God  and  man  :  and  altho'  the  law  given  by  Moses,  as  to  ceremonies 
and  the  civil  precepts  of  it,  doth  not  bind  Christians :  yet  all  such  are 
obliged  to  observe  the  moral  commandments  which  he  delivered. 

4.  Of  Creeds. 

The  creed,  commonly  called  the  Apostles'  creed,  ought  to  be  received 
and  believed  :   because  it  may  be  proved  by  the  Holy  Scripture. 

5.  Of  Original  Sin. 

By  the  fall  of  Adam,  the  nature  of  man  is  become  so  corrupt,  as  to 
be  greatly  depraved,  having  departed  from  its  primitive  innocence,  and 
that  original  righteousness  in  which  it  was  at  first  created  by  God.  For 
we  are  now  so  naturally  inclined  to  do  evil  that  the  flesh  is  continually 
striving  to  act  contrary  to  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  corrupt  inclination 
still  remains  even  in  the  regenerate.     But  tho'  there  is  no  man  living 


1/35]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  129 

who  sinneth  not ;   yet  we  must   use  our  sincere  endeavors  to  keep  the 
whole  Law  of  God,  so  far  as  we  possibly  can. 

6.  Of  Free-Will. 

The  Condition  of  man  after  the  fall  of  Adam,  is  such  that  he  cannot 
turn  and  prepare  himself  by  his  own  natural  strength  and  good  works 
to  faith  and  calling  upon  God  :  Wherefore  we  have  no  power  to  do 
good  works,  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God,  without  the  grace  of  God 
by  Christ  giving  us  a  good  will,  and  working  with  us,  when  we  have 
that  good  will. 

7.  Of  the  Justification  of  Man. 

We  are  accounted  righteous  before  God  only  for  the  merit  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  by  faith,  and  not  for  our  own  works,  or 
deservings.  Wherefore  that  we  are  justified  by  faith  only,  is  a  most 
wholesome  doctrine,  and  very  full  of  comfort. 

8.  Of  Good  Works. 

Albeit  that  good  works,  which  are  the  fruits  of  Faith  and  follow  after 
Justification,  cannot  put  away  our  sins,  and  endure  the  severity  of  God's 
judgment ;  yet  are  they  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God  in  Christ,  and 
do  spring  out  necessarily  of  a  true  and  lively  faith,  insomuch  that  by 
them  a  lively  faith  may  be  as  evidently  known,  as  a  Tree  discerned  by 
the  Fruit. 

9.  Of  Christ  alone  without  Sin. 

Christ,  by  taking  human  nature  on  him,  was  made  like  unto  us  in  all 
things,  sin  only  excepted.  He  was  a  lamb  without  spot,  and  by  the 
sacrifice  of  himself  once  offered,  made  atonement  and  propitiation  for 
the  sins  of  the  world ;  and  sin  was  not  in  him.  But  all  mankind 
besides,  tho'  baptized  and  born  again  in  Christ,  do  offend  in  many 
things.  For  if  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  us. 

10.  Of  Sin  after  Baptism. 

They  who  fall  into  sin  after  baptism  may  be  renewed  by  repentance  : 
for  tho'  after  we  have  received  God's  grace,  we  may  depart  from  it  by 
falling  into  sin  ;  yet  thro'  the  assistance  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  we  may  by 
repentance  and  the  amendment  of  our  lives,  be  restored  again  to  his 
favour.  God  will  not  deny  repentance  of  sins  to  those  who  truly 
repent,  and  do  that  which  is  lawful  and  right  ;  but  all  such  thro'  his 
mercy  in  Christ  Jesus,  shall  save  their  souls  alive. 

11.   Of  Predestination. 

Predestination   to  Life,  with  respect  to  every  man's  salvation,  is  the 

everlasting  purpose  of  God,  secret  to  us:   and  the  right  knowledge  of 

what  is  revealed  concerning  it,  is  full  of  comfort  to  such  truly  religious 

Christians,  as  feel   in  themselves  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  mortifying  the 

9 


130  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

works  of  their  flesh,  and  their  earthly  affections,  and  raising  their 
minds  to  heavenly  things.  But  we  must  receive  God's  promises  as  they 
be  generally  declared  in  Holy  Scripture,  and  do  his  will,  as  therein 
i;  expressly  directed;  for  without  Holiness  of  Life  no  man  shall  be 
saved. 

12.  Of    Obtaining    Eternal    Salvation    only    by   the    Name    of 

Christ. 

They  are  to  be  accounted  presumptuous,  who  say,  that  every  man  shall 
be  saved  by  the  Law  or  Sect  which  he  professeth,  so  that  he  be  diligent 
to  frame  his  life  according  to  that  law,  and  the  light  of  nature.  For 
Holy  Scripture  doth  set  out  unto  us  only  the  Name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
whereby  men  must  be  saved. 

13.  Of  the  Church  and  its  Authority. 
The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men, 
wherein  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the  sacraments  are  duly 
administered,  according  to  Christ's  ordinance  in  all  things  necessary 
and  requisite  :  And  every  Church  hath  power  to  ordain,  change  and 
abolish  rites  and  ceremonies,  for  the  more  decent  order  and  good  gov- 
ernment thereof,  so  that  all  things  be  done  to  edifying.  But  it  is  not 
lawful  for  the  Church  to  ordain  anything  contrary  to  God's  word  ;  nor 
so  to  expound  the  Scripture,  as  to  make  one  part  seem  repugnant  to 
another  ;  nor  to  decree  or  enforce  anything  to  be  believed  as  necessary 
to  salvation,  that  is  contrary  to  God's  holy  word.  General  Councils 
and  Churches  are  liable  to  err,  and  have  erred,  even  in  matters  of 
Faith  and  Doctrine,  as  well  as  in  their  ceremonies. 

14.  Of  Ministering  in  the  Congregation. 

It  is  not  lawful  for  any  man  to  take  upon  him  the  office  of  public 
preaching,  or  ministering  the  Sacraments  in  the  Congregation,  before 
he  be  lawfully  called,  and  sent  to  execute  the  same.  And  those  we 
ought  to  judge  lawfully  called  and  sent,  who  are  chosen  and  called  to 
this  work  by  men  who  have  public  authority  given  unto  them  in  the 
congregation,  to  call  and  send  Ministers  into  the  Lord's  vineyard. 

15.  Of  the  Sacraments. 

Sacraments  ordained  of  Christ,  be  not  only  badges  or  tokens  of 
Christian  men's  profession  :  but  rather  they  be  certain  sure  witnesses, 
and  effectual  signs  of  Grace,  and  God's  good  will  towards  us,  by  the 
which  he  doth  work  invisibly  in  us,  and  doth  not  only  quicken,  but 
also  strengthen  and  confirm  our  Faith  in  him. 

There  are  Two  Sacraments  ordained  of  Christ  our  Lord  in  the 
Gospel,  that  is  to  say,  Baptism  and  the  Supper  of  the  Lord. 


I785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  I).  D.  131 

16.  Of  Baptism. 

Baptism  is  not  only  a  Sign  of  profession  and  mark  of  difference, 
whereby  Christian  men  are  discerned  from  others  that  be  not  Christened; 
but  it  is  also  a  sign  of  regeneration  or  new  Birth,  whereby  as  by  an  In- 
strument, they  that  receive  Baptism  rightly,  are  grafted  into  the  Church; 
the  promises  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  and  of  our  Adoption  to  be  the 
Sons  of  God,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  visibly  sign'd  and  sealed  ;  Faith 
is  confirm'd,  and  Grace  increas'd  by  virtue  of  prayer  unto  God.  The 
Baptism  of  young  Children  is  in  any  wise  to  be  retained  in  the  Church, 
as  most  agreeable  with  the  Institution  of  Christ. 

17.  Of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

The  Supper  of  the  Lord  is  not  only  a  Sign  of  the  Love  that  Chris- 
tians ought  to  have  among  themselves  one  to  another ;  but  rather  is  a 
Sacrament  of  our  redemption  by  Christ's  death  :  Insomuch  that  to  such 
as  rightly,  worthily  and  with  faith  receive  the  same,  the  Bread  which 
we  break,  is  a  partaking  of  the  Body  of  Christ :  and  likewise  the  Cup 
of  Blessing,  is  a  partaking  of  the  Blood  of  Christ. 

Transubstantiation  (or  the  change  of  the  substance  of  Bread  and 
Wine)  in  the  Supper  of  the  Lord  cannot  be  proved  by  Holy  Writ ;  but 
is  repugnant  to  the  plain  words  of  Scripture,  overthroweth  the  nature 
of  a  Sacrament,  and  hath  given  occasion  to  many  superstitions. 

The  Body  of  Christ  is  given,  taken  and  eaten  in  the  Supper  of  the 
Lord  only  after  an  heavenly  and  spiritual  manner.  And  the  mean 
whereby  the  Body  of  Christ  is  received  and  eaten  in  the  Supper  is  Faith. 

18.  Of  the  one  Oblation  of  Christ  upon  the  Cross. 

The  offering  of  Christ  once  made,  is  that  perfect  redemption,  pro- 
pitiation and  satisfaction  for  all  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  both  original 
and  actual;  and  there  is  none  other  satisfaction  for  sin,  but  that  alone. 

19.  Of  Bishops  and   Ministers. 

The  Book  of  Consecration  of  Bishops  and  Ordering  of  Priests  and 
Deacons;  excepting  such  part  as  requires  any  oaths  or  subscriptions  in- 
consistent with  the  American  Revolution,  is  to  be  adopted  as  containing 
all  things  necessary  to  such  consecration  and  ordering. 

20.  Of  a  Christian  Man's  Oath. 

The  Christian  Religion  doth  not  prohibit  any  man  from  taking  an 
oath,  when  required  by  the  Magistrate  in  testimony  of  Truth ;  But  all 
vain  and  rash  swearing  is  forbidden  by  the  Holy  Scriptures.* 

*  These  articles,  though  now  superceded  by  the  original  thirty-nine  articles  of  the 
Church  of  England,  adopted  by  us  in  1789,  may  still,  perhaps,  I  rather  take  it,  be  re- 
ferred to  as  explaining  these  last  when  not  clear. — H.  W.  S. 


132  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  LI78S 

IV.  The  Table  of  Holy  Days. 

The  following  Days  are  to  be  kept  Holy  by  this  Church,  viz. : 

All  the  Sundays  in  the  year  in  the  Order  enumerated  in  the  Table  of  Proper  Lessons 
with  their  respective  Services. 
Christmas. 
Circumcision. 
Epiphany. 

Easter  Day,  Monday  and  Tuesday. 
Ascension  Day. 
Whit-Sunday,  Monday  and  Tuesday. 

The  following  Days  are  to  be  observed  as  Days  of  Fasting,  viz. : 

Good  Friday  and  Ash  Wednesday. 

The  following  Days  are  to  be  observed  as  Days  of  Thanksgiving,  viz. : 

The  4th  of  July,  in  commemoration  of  American  Independence. 
The  First  Thursday  in  November  as  a  Day  of  General  Thanksgiving. 

After  the  alterations,  abridgments,  additions  and  modifications 
in  the  Liturgy  which  we  have  spoken  of  above,  under  our  Head  II, 
had  been  agreed  to  by  the  Convention,  they  were  proposed  and 
recommended  to  the  Church  in  those  States  from  which  there  were 
deputies  to  the  Convention ;  and  the  Articles  of  Religion  as  pre- 
sented in  their  new  form  were  recommended  to  the  Church  to  be 
by  them  adopted  in  the  next  General  Convention.  Nothing  as 
yet  was  in  print ;  but  the  new  Liturgy  being  transcribed  and 
having'  been  read,  Divine  Service  according'  to  it  was  held  in 
Christ  Church,  Dr.  White  saying  the  prayers  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Smith  preaching  a  sermon,  as  he  had  been  requested  by  the 
Convention  to  do,  "  suited  to  the  solemn  occasion  of  the  Conven- 
tion." This  proceeding  took  place  October  7th,  1785.  The  text 
is  from  St.  Luke,  chap,  xiv.,  ver.  23  : 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  the  servant,  Go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges,  and 
compel  them  to  come  in,  that  my  house  may  be  filled. 

The  earlier  part  of  the  discourse  probably  had  not  been  written 
for  this  special  occasion,  and  may  have  been  used  merely  as  a 
suitable  introduction  for  more  particular  matter.  The  preacher 
begins : 

In  the  parable,  of  which  the  words  of  my  text  are  a  part,  the  unspeak- 
able happiness  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  begun  in  the  hearts  of 
believers  in  this  world,  and  to  be  consummated  in  the  world  to  come, 
is  represented  under  the  figure  of  a  great  Feast,  or  Supper,  to  which 


1785]  REV,    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  1 33 

multitudes  were  bidden  ;  and  the  excuses,  which  they  offer  for  not 
coming,  strongly  describe  the  various  obstructions  which  the  Gospel 
would  meet  with  in  its  reception  among  men  ;  from  the  time  of  its  first 
promulgation,  to  that  blessed  period  when  the  dispersed  among  the 
highways  and  hedges  of  remotest  nations  shall  hear  its  Divine  call,  and 
"all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord,  and 
of  his  Christ !  " 

After  speaking  of  certain  methods  of  bringing  men  to  the 
Heavenly  Feast,  which  the  Gospel  will  not  justify — such  as 
external  compulsion,  or  what  was  as  unscriptural,  the  dressing  out 
the  pure  religion  of  the  Gospel  i:i  away  that  offers  salvation  with- 
out obedience  to  its  moral  precepts,  and  strives  to  persuade  men 
that  they  may  become  Christians  on  easier  terms  than  Christ  hath 
appointed,  the  preacher,  coming  to  the  more  joyous  branch  of 
his  subject,  says:  "The  consideration  of  those  methods  which  the 
Scriptures  not  onhy  justifies  but  commands;  whereby  all,  both 
clergy  and  laity,  may  be  instrumental,  through  the  help  of  God,  in 
compelling  others  to  the  profession  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  prac- 
tice of  its  Divine  precepts."     "  This,"  he  says,  "  we  may  do — 

"  1st.  By  special  instruction  and  exhortation; 

"  2dly.  By  living  example  ;  and 

"  3dly.  By  the  decency,  devotion,  fervency  and  solemnity  of 
our  forms  of  public  worship,  and  by  embracing  every  opportunity 
of  their  further  improvement." 

Having  treated,  in  a  forcible  way,  the  first  two  modes  above 
mentioned,  he  comes  to  the  one  which  prompted  the  discourse. 
He  says : 

This  brings  me  to  my  third  and  chief  head  on  this  great  occasion  ; 
which  was  to  show  that  another  powerful  method  of  compelling  men  to 
come  in,  is  by  the  decency,  devotion,  fervency  and  solemnity  of  our 
forms  of  Public  Worship ;  using  every  endeavour  in  our  power  for  their 
further  improvement.  For  this  good  purpose,  the  representative  body 
of  our  Church,  from  a  number  of  these  United  States,  are  now  assembled 
or  convened. 

Arduous  was  the  work  that  lay  before  us.  When  we  took  up  our 
Liturgy  with  a  view  to  certain  necessary  alterations,  we  were  struck  with 
the  utmost  diffidence.  We  contemplated  our  Church  service  as  an 
august  and  beautiful  fabric — venerable  for  its  antiquity — venerable  from 
the  memory  of  those  glorious,  and  now  glorified,  Luminaries,  Saints 
and  Martyrs,  who  laid  the  foundations  of  our  Church  on  the  rock  of 
ages.     We  stood  arrested,  as  it  were,  at  an  awful  distance — It  appeared 


134  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPOXDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

almost  sacrilege  to  approach  the  porch,  or  lift  a  hand  to  touch  a  single 
part,  to  polish  a  single  corner,  or  to  clear  it  from  its  rust  of  years. 

When,  on  the  one  hand,  we  looked  back  to  the  days  of  the  first  refor- 
mation in  Religion,  the  progressive  steps  by  which  those  pious  worthies 
broke  down  the  enormous  pile  of  rubbish  and  error,  which  for  ages  had 
been  built  up  to  obscure  the  ancient  foundations  laid  by  Christ  and  his 
Apostles ;  when  we  considered  the  difficulties  which  they  had  to 
encounter — the  powers  of  this  world  combined  against  them — the 
strength  of  ancient  habits  and  prejudices — the  ignorance  of  the  age 
(learning  and  philosophy  being  then  at  a  low  ebb,  and  chiefly  engrossed 
by  those  whose  interest  it  was  to  support  the  former  error;)  when  we 
considered  these  things,  we  were  rather  astonished  that  they  had  gone 
so  far  than  that  they  went  no  farther — but,  we  were  encouraged  to  pro- 
ceed, by  considering,  on  the  other  hand,  that  we  had  none  of  those 
difficulties  to  deter  us. 

Blessed  be  God,  we  live  in  a  liberal  and  enlightened  age,  when  Re- 
ligion, if  not  so  generally  practised  as  it  ought,  is  never'  'eless  generally 
better  understood  ;  and  when  nothing  can  be  considered  as  deserving 
the  name  of  Religion,  which  is  not  rational,  solid,  serious,  charitable, 
and  worthy  of  the  nature  and  perfections  of  God  to  receive,  and  of  free 
and  reasonable  creatures  to  perform — Nor  had  we  to  contend  against, 
nor  suffer  from,  the  rulers  of  this  world.  Blessed  be  God  again,  they 
yield  us  that  best  protection  and  assistance  which  Religion  can  receive 
from  earthly  powers — perfect  and  equal  liberty  to  worship  God  accord- 
ing to  that  sense  of  holy  Scripture  which  our  reason  and  conscience 
approve ;  and  to  make  such  alterations  and  improvements  in  points  of 
decency,  order,  government  and  edification,  as  the  general  body  of  the 
Church,  from  time  to  time,  may  judge  most  expedient. 

Favourable  to  our  wishes,  therefore,  was  the  present  sera.  Through 
the  wise  ordering  of  Providence,  we  had  just  become  a  sovereign  and 
separate  people  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  independent  of  all 
foreign  jurisdiction,  in  matters  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil.  With  vast 
labour  and  application  our  forms  and  constitutions  of  civil  government 
had  been  built  up  and  established  upon  the  purest  principles  of  political 
wisdom  and  liberty;  in  consequence  of  which,  certain  changes  in  our 
ecclesiastical  constitutions  became  necessary,  as  well  as  in  our  forms  of 
Prayer  for  the  "powers  that  be;"  considering  them  "as  ordained  of 
God." 

These  alterations  being  once  made,  an  occasion  was  offered  (such  as 
few  Churches  before  us  have  ever  enjoyed)  of  taking  up  our  Liturgy  or 
public  Service,  for  a  Review,  where  our  former  venerable  reformers  had 
been  obliged  to  leave  it ;  and  of  proposing  to  the  Church  at  large, 
such  further  alterations  and  improvements,  as  the  length  of  time,  the 
progress   in    manners   and   civilization,  the  increase  and    diffusion  of 


1785]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  £>.  D.  1 35 

charity  and  toleration  among  all  Christian  denominations,  and  other 
circumstances  (some  of  them  peculiar  to  our  situation  among  the  high- 
ways and  hedges  of  this  new  world)  seem  to  have  rendered  absolutely 
necessary. 

Anient,  and  of  long  continuance,  have  been  the  wishes  of  many  of 
the  greatest,  wisest  and  best  Divines  of  our  Church,  for  some  alterations 
and  improvements  of  this  kind.     Among   these  we   have  a  Whitby,* 

*  The  judgment  and  wishes  of  some  of  those  great  Divines,  which  could  not  so  con- 
veniently be  delivered  in  a  Sermon,  I  have  collected  into  the  following  notes,  for  the 
further  information  of  the  reader: 

"  If  our  rulers  (says  Dr.  Whitby  1  would  be  pleased  to  change  the  present  Liturgy  as 
much  from  what  it  is,  as  it  is  altered  from  what  it  was,  in  the  days  of  Edward  the  Vlth, 
I  verily  believe  that  alteration  would  render  it  acceptable  to  many,  who  do  now  rcfi:sc 
submission  to  it.  The  Church  of  Christ  hath  judged  it  fit  to  alter  many  things  which 
were  first  instituted  by  the  blessed  Apostles  themselves,  or  by  the  primitive  age  of  the 
Church  [namely  the  kiss  of  charity  and  some  other  usages;]  yet  I  hope  this  tempteth 
no  man  to  suspect  the  wisdom  of  the  Apostles  of  our  Lord,  or  of  the  primitive  profes- 
sors of  Christianity.  Why,  therefore,  should  a  like  practice  tempt  any  to  suspect  the 
wisdom  of  our  first  reformers?  We  have  already  altered  many  things,  which  were 
allowed  and  done  by  them.  They  at  first  retained  chrism,  prayer  for  the  dead,  bap- 
tism by  women;  and  many  other  things  of  a  like  nature.  And  if  these  things  might 
be  reformed,  without  reflection  on  their  wisdom,  why  may  not  other  things  be  so?  " 

"The  serious  and  speedy  review  of  the  Liturgy,"  says  Bishop  Gauden  (in  the  year 
1661),  "  much  desired  by  some,  and  not  much  opposed  by  others,  may  be  of  good  use 
for  explaining  some  words  and  phrases  which  are  now  much  antiquated,  obscure  and 
out  of  vulgar  understanding;  which  is  no  news  after  an  hundred  years,  in  which,  lan- 
guage, as  well  as  all  things  under  heaven  change.  This  work,  once  well  and  wisely 
done,  may,  by  God's  blessing,  much  tend  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  sober  Christians; — 
for  as  one  d  y  teacheth  another,  so  there  may  be  (as  in  all  outward  forms  of  Divine 
Worship)  both  harmless  additions,  and  innocent  variations ;  vea,  and  sometimes  in- 
offensive defalcations  of  some  redundancies,  according  as  men  and  times,  and  words 
and  manners  and  customs,  vary." 

Bishop  Sanderson  (in  a  visitation  Sermon,  1641),  speaking  of  our  reformation,  al- 
though he  says  "  he  hail  a  great  esteem  for  the  moderation  of  it,  and  a  great  veneration 
for  the  instruments  employed  by  God  in  it,  and  a  great  love  of  that  wholesome  way 
of  doctrine,  life,  devotion  and  government ;  yet  he  was  not  such  a  formalist,  but  that  he 
wished  for  alterations,  though  he  judged  that  all  alterations,  in  such  grand  and  estab- 
lished concerns  as  Religion,  should  be  done  by  the  public  spirit,  counsel  and  consent 
of  the  Prophets,  Prince  and  People." 

"Nothing,"  Says  Bishop  Beveridge,  "was  anciently  more  usual  with  the  Churches 
of  God,  than  when  times  and  necessity  required  it,  to  change  the  laws  made  by  them- 
selves;  to  abrogate  old  ones,  and  substitute  others  and  perhaps  different  ones,  in  their 
stead."  "And,"  says  Bishop  Kennet,  "  let  us  hope  and  pray  that  whatever  addition 
can  be  made  to  our  happiness,  God  in  his  time  will  add  those  things  unto  us.  In  the 
Churches  of  Corinth  and  Crete,  planted  by  an  Apostle,  there  were  some  things  want- 
ing, to  be  afterward  set  in  order." 

Bishop  Burnet  "  wishes  some  things  may  be  taken  away,  and  others  softened  and 
explained.  Many  things  were  retained  at  the  reformation,  to  draw  the  people  the 
more  entirely  into  it;  which  was  at  that  time  a  lawful  consideration,  but  is  now  at  an 
end,"  &c. 


136  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1785 

Tillotson,  Saunderson,  Stillingfleet,  Burnet,  Beveridge,  Wake,  Tennison, 
Hales,  and  innumerable  others  of  venerable  name  among  the  Clergy; 
and  among  the  Laity  a  multitude  more,  at  the  head  of  whom  may 
be  placed  the  great  Lord  Bacon,  the  father  of  almost  all  reformation 
and  improvement  in  modern  philosophy  and  science. 

Eight  different  times,  from  the  days  of  Edward  the  sixth,  when  our 
Liturgy  was  first  framed,  to  the  year  1661,  has  it  been  revised  and 
altered  by  public  authority.  And,  says  Archbishop  Tennison,  some 
who  have  well  considered  all  the  alterations  and  amendments  which 
were  then  made  (viz.  in  1661),  and  which  amount  to  the  number  of 
six  hundred,  are  sufficiently  convinced  that  if  there  was  reason  for  those 
changes  at  that  time,  there  is  equal,  if  not  greater  reason,  for  some  fur- 
ther improvements  now. 

Our  Church,  in  the  preface  to  our  common  prayer,  allows  the  ex- 
pediency and  necessity  of  such  alterations  from  time  to  time.  Even 
our  language  itself  is  fluctuating,  and  receiving  frequent  improvements; 
and  in  what  concerns  Religion,  and  its  various  forms,  rites  and  cere- 
monies, no  Church  on  earth  can  claim  perfection.  This  belongs  only 
to  the  Church  of  the  first  born  in  Heaven  : 

But  the  greatest  and  most  important  alterations  and  amendments  were 
proposed  at  the  Revolution,  that  great  tera  of  liberty,  when  in  1689,* 
commissioners  were  appointed,  among  whom  were  many  of  the  great 
divines  already  mentioned  ;  of  whom,  and  of  those  who  were  nomi- 
nated for  the  like  great  work  before  the  revolution,  Archbishop  Wake 
says — "  They  were  a  set  of  men,  than  whom  this  church  was  never,  at 

*  The  preamble  to  the  commission  in  16S9,  was  as  follows,  strongly  setting  forth  the 
need  of  alterations  from  time  to  time,  viz.: 

"  Whereas  the  particular  forms  of  divine  worship,  and  the  rites  and  ceremonies  ap- 
pointed to  be  used  therein,  are  things  in  their  own  nature  indifferent  and  alterable  and 
so  acknowledged;  it  is  but  reasonable  that,  upon  weighty  and  important  considerations, 
according  to  the  various  exigencies  of  times  and  occasions,  such  changes  and  altera- 
tions should  be  made  therein  as  to  those  that  are  in  place  and  authority  should  from 
time  to  time  seem  either  necessary  or  expedient." 

Archbishop  Wake,  lamenting  the  miscarriage  of  the  great  and  good  design  of  this 
commission,  declares  it  to  have  been  as  follows,  and  makes  some  other  strong  remarks 
upon  the  whole  proceedings,  with  which  I  shall  close  these  notes. 

"The  design,"  says  he,  "was  in  short  to  improve,  and,  if  possible,  to  enforce  our 
discipline,  to  review  and  enlarge  our  liturgy,  by  correcting  of  some  things,  by  adding 
of  others,  by  leaving  some  few  ceremonies,  confessed  to  be  indifferent  in  their  nature, 
as  indifferent  in  their  usage.  No  alterations  were  intended,  but  in  things  declared 
alterable  by  the  church  itself.  And  if  things  alterable,  be  altered  upon  the  grounds 
of  prudence  and  charity;  and  things  defective  be  supplied;  and  things  abused  be  re- 
stored to  their  proper  use;  and  things  of  a  more  ordinary  composition  be  revised  and 
improved,  while  the  doctrine,  government  and  worship  of  the  church,  remain  entire  in 
all  the  substantial  parts  of  them ;  we  have  all  reason  to  believe  that  this  will  be  so  far 
from  injuring  the  church,  that  on  the  contrary,  it  shall  receive  a  very  great  benefit 
thereby." — Speech  on  Sacheverell's  Trial. 


I7S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 37 

any  one  time,  blessed  with  either  wiser  or  better,  since  it  was  a  church." 
They  set  earnestly  about  the  great  work  committed  to  them  :  making 
many  important  and  necessary  alterations  in  the  morning  and  evening 
service  ;  revising  the  various  collects  throughout  the  year,  and  render- 
ing them  more  suitable  to  the  epistles  and  gospels;  striking  out  un- 
necessary repetitions  in  the  service,  and  also  such  psalms  and  lessons  of 
the  Old  Testament,  as  appeared  less  suitable  to  the  worship  of  a  Chris- 
tian church;  altering  and  amending  the  offices  of  baptism,  confirma- 
tion, matrimony,  visitation  of  the  sick,  and  burial  of  the  dead,  in  all 
things  justly  exceptionable  ;  so  that  the  whole  service  might  thus  become 
more  connected,  solemn  and  affecting. 

This  great  reformation  was,  however,  lost  through  the  heats  and 
divisions  which  immediately  followed,  both  in  church  and  state,  under 
King  William ;  and  such  hath  been  the  situation  of  things  that  it 
hath  never  since  been  resumed  in  the  mother  church,  by  any  public 
authority. 

But  singularly  to  be  admired  and  adored  are  the  ways  of  Provi- 
dence !  At  the  commencement  of  a  new  aera  in  the  civil  and  religious 
condition  of  mankind  in  this  new  world,  and  upon  another  great 
Revolution  about  an  hundred  years  after  the  former,  all  those  proposed 
alterations  and  amendments  were  in  our  hands;  and  we  had  it  in 
our  power  to  adopt  and  even  to  improve  them,  as  might  best  suit  our 
circumstances  in  that  part  of  our  church,  which  the  Lord  hath  planted 
and  permitted  to  flourish  among  the  highways  and  hedges  of  this  im- 
mense continent  ! 

To  embrace  such  an  occasion,  we  are  certain  that  multitudes  in  the 
mother  church  would  rejoice  !  And  for  us,  not  to  have  embraced  it, 
would  have  been  ungrateful  to  our  God,  unjust  to  ourselves  and  our 
holy  religion,  and  unpardonable  by  our  posterity.  It  hath  been 
embraced  ! — And,  in  such  a  manner,  we  trust,  as  will  carry  our  Church 
through  all  the  shoals  of  controversy,  and  conduct  her  into  a  safe  and 
quiet  harbour ! 

What  glories  will  shine  upon  the  heads  of  our  Clergy  whom  God 
hath  made  instrumental  in  this  good  work  !  How  much  shall  our  laity 
be  venerated  for  the  candor,  liberality,  and  abilities,  which  they  have 
manifested  on  this  great  occasion.  Looking  back  upon  the  wonderful 
things  which  God  hath  of  late  done  for  them,  and  forward  upon  the 
long  tract  of  glory  which  is  opening  before  them  as  a  people  ;  they 
could  not  but  consider  that,  after  all  their  illustrious  toils  for  the  civil 
happiness  of  their  country,  they  had  done  but  little  for  their  posterity 
if  the  great  concerns  of  Religion  were  neglected  ;  knowing  that  right- 
eousness only  exalteth  a  nation,  and  that  empires  and  kingdoms  can 
rise  and  flourish  upon  no  other  foundation,  than  Religion  and  Virtue. 

What   now  remains,   lies  with   the  body  of  our   Church   at   large; 


I38  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1/S5 

namely,  to  receive,  with  the  like  temper  of  liberality,  gravity  and 
seriousness,  as  in  the  sight  of  Almighty  God,  what  is  now  offered  to 
their  acceptance  and  use  by  their  Church  representatives  or  deputies. 
One  part  of  the  service  you  have  just  heard,  and  have  devoutly  joined 
in  it.  Here  the  alterations  are  but  few,  and  those,  it  is  hoped,  such  as 
tend  to  render  it  more  solemn,  beautiful  and  affecting  !  The  chief 
alterations  and  amendments  are  proposed  in  the  various  offices,  viz. : 
of  Baptism,  &c,  as  hath  been  observed  to  you  before,  with  the  addition 
of  some  new  services  or  offices  ;  namely,  for  the  4th  day  of  July,  com- 
memorative of  the  blessings  of  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty  ;  the  first 
Thursday  of  November  as  a  Thanksgiving  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth  ; 
and  an  office  for  the  visitation  of  persons  under  the  sentence  of  death ; 
of  all  which  you  can  only  form  a  true  judgment,  when  they  shall  be 
published  and  proposed  to  you  in  the  new  prayer  book. 

Brethren  !  I  am  not  a  stranger  to  you  in  this  pulpit  !  But  some 
years  have  elapsed  since  I  have  addressed  you  from  hence ;  and  a  few 
years  more  will  close  my  lips  forever  !  This  may  possibly  be  my  last 
Sermon  to  you  ;  and,  therefore,  I  would  exhort  you  again  to  receive, 
and  examine,  with  a  meek,  candid,  teachable  and  charitable  temper  of 
mind,  what  is  proposed  to  you  on  this  solemn  occasion ;  as  a  work 
intended  holy  for  the  advancement  of  Religion  and  the  maintenance  of 
Peace  and  Unity  in  our  Church  to  latest  posterity.  Let  all  prejudices  and 
prepossessions  be  laid  aside.  Consider  seriously  what  Christianity  is  ! 
What  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  are  !  And  how  much  it  is  our  duty  to 
have  them  set  forth  and  promulgated  to  the  Christian  world,  and  also  the 
Heathen  world  around  us,  in  the  clearest,  plainest,  most  affecting  and 
majestic  manner  !  Let  them  never  be  obscured  by  dark  and  mysterious 
sentences  and  definitions  ;  nor  refined  away  by  cunningly  devised  fables, 
or  the  visionary  glosses  of  men,  thinking  themselves  wise  above  what  is 
written.  Were  our  blessed  Saviour  now  upon  earth,  he  would  not 
narrow  the  terms  of  communion,  by  such  ways  as  these ;  and  it  is  our 
duty,  as  it  hath  been  our  great  endeavour  in  all  the  alterations  pro- 
posed, to  makj  the  consciences  of  those  easy  who  believe  in  the  true 
principles  of  Christianity  in  general,  and  who,  could  they  be  made  easy 
in  certain  points  no  way  essential  to  Christianity  itself,  would  rather 
become  worshippers  as  well  as  labourers,  in  that  part  of  Christ's  vine- 
yard, in  which  we  profess  to  worship  and  to  labour,  than  in  any  other. 
And  what  good  man  or  Christian,  either  of  the  Clergy  or  Laity,  can 
object  to  this  ?  If  we  are  Christians,  indeed  ;  if  the  love  of  truth  and 
of  one  another,  the  true  signs  of  the  peace  of  Christ,  prevail  in  our 
hearts;  there  will  be  no  disputing  or  gainsaying,  in  matters  of  this 
kind.  In  all  things,  fundamental  and  necessary  to  salvation,  we 
'  shall  speedily  find  a  decision  in  the  word  of  God  ;  '  and  as  to  things 
speculative  and  unnecessary,  'not  finding  them  written  there,'  we  will 


I785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  139 

seek  for  their  decision,  by  suffering  them  to  glide  smoothly  down  the 
stream  of  mutual  forbearance,  till  at  length  they  be  discharged  into  the 
unbounded  ocean  of  Christian  love,  and  be  there  swallowed  up  and  lost 
forever  ! 

Let  us  not,  therefore,  repeat  former  errors;  nor  let  the  advantages 
now  in  our  hands  slip  from  us.  If  we  become  slack  or  indifferent  in 
the  concerns  of  Religion  ;  if  we  discourage  every  endeavour  for  refor- 
mation,* "not  only  departing  from  the  Law  but  corrupting  the  covenant 
of  Levi,  so  as  to  make  men  stumble  at  the  Law;  the  Lord  our  God  hath 
said  that  he  will  make  us  base  and  contemptible  among  the  people,  and 
all  our  flock  shall  be  scattered."  God  will  be  provoked  to  remove  his 
candle  from  us,  that  glorious  light  which  he  hath  revealed  to  us ;  and 
we  shall  fall  back  again  into  the  former  grossness  and  superstition  ! 

If,  Brethren,  in  the  present  work  any  thing  be  offered  or  done,  with 
less  clearness,  precision,  purity,  or  elevation  of  thought  and  expression, 
let  it  be  considered  calmly,  judged  of  by  Christian  methods,  and  pro- 
posed for  future  amendment  with  singleness  of  heart ;  imitating  the 
meekness  and  love  of  our  master  Jesus  !  Thus  shall  we  approve  our- 
selves his  disciples ;  and  be  justified  in  our  endeavours  for  the  purity  of 
our  Religion,  not  only  in  the  sight  of  men  and  angels,  but  of  Him 
especially,  who  will  be  our  sovereign  Judge,  and  sits  enthroned  above 
all  the  choirs  of  angels. 

Thus  also  shall  men  be  compelled  to  join  in  our  worship,  and  our 
Sabbaths  become  more  and  more  sanctified.  Our  very  hearts  and  flesh 
will  long  for  the  courts  of  God's  house — for  the  return  of  every  Sab- 
bath, as  a  blessed  remainder,  yet  left  us,  of  our  original  bliss  in  para- 
dise, and  a  happy  foretaste  of  our  future  bliss  in  the  paradise  that  is 
above — a  day  of  grace  whereon  our  heavenly  King  lays  open  the  courts 
of  his  palace,  and  invites  us  to  a  more  immediate  communion  with 
himself!   .... 

Wherefore,  then,  Brethren,  let  our  Sabbaths  be  remembered,  and 
more  and  more  sanctified.  The  Scriptures  encourage  us  to  look  for  a 
time  when  there  shall  be  an  universal  diffusion  of  the  gospel  throughout 
this  land  ;  when  they  who  dwell  in  the  Wilderness  shall  bow  down  be- 
fore the  Lord,  when  among  the  highways  an'd  hedges  to  the  remotest 
part  of  the  Continent  decent  places  of  worship  shall  be  erected — vil- 
lages, towns  and  great  cities  arise — and  the  service  and  worship  of  our 
church  as  we  have  introduced  it,  be  not  only  adopted,  but  through  the 
blessings  of  God,  become  happily  instrumental  in  compelling  the  fulness 
of  the  Gentile  world  to  come  in. 

O  Time,  may  thy  wheels  move  quickly  round,  until  the  approach  of 
the  blessed  aera,  till  there  be  a  fulness  of  spiritual  food  through  every 
part  of  this  new  world ;  and  all  nations,  kindreds  and   tongues  have 

*  Mai.  Ch.  II.  ver.  8,  9. 


I40  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

access  with  us  unto  one  CxOD,  and  be  sealed  with  us  unto  the  day  of 
Redemption,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Amen. 

As  we  have  already  said,  nothing  was  yet  in  print.  Certain  of 
the  alterations — those  not  rendered  necessary  by  the  Revolution — 
had  been  agreed  on,  proposed,  and  recommended,  but  all  the 
alterations  alike — as  well  those  resolved  on  as  those  proposed  and 
recommended — were  yet  on  the  journal  and  in  manuscript,  and 
without  much  shape  or  finish.  Dr.  White,  the  President  of  the 
Convention,  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Wharton  were  now  appointed  "  to 
publish  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  with  the  alterations,  as  well 
those  now  ratified  in  order  to  render  the  Liturgy  consistent  with 
the  American  revolution  and  the  constitutions  of  the  respective 
States,  as  the  alterations  and  new  offices  recommended  to  this 
Church,"  and  it  was  resolved  "that  the  book  be  accompanied  with  a 
proper  Preface  or  Address,  setting  forth  the  reason  and  expediency 
of  the  alterations ;  and  that  the  Committee  have  the  liberty  to 
make  verbal  and  grammatical  corrections ;  but  in  such  a  manner 
as  that  nothing  in  form  or  substance  be  altered." 

It  was  also  resolved  that  the  same  Committee  be  authorized  to 
publish,  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  such  of  the  reading 
and  singing  Psalms,  and  such  a  calendar  of  proper  lessons  for  the 
different  Sundays  and  holidays  throughout  the  year,  as  they 
might  think  proper. 

It  was  further  ordered  that  the  said  Committee  be  authorized  to 
dispose  of  the  copies  of  the  Common  Prayer  when  printed ;  and 
that  after  defraying  all  expenses  incurred  therein,  they  remit  the 
neat  profits  to  the  treasurers  of  the  several  corporations  and 
societies  for  the  relief  of  the  widows  and  children  of  deceased 
clergymen  in  the  States  represented  in  this  Convention — the 
profits  to  be  equally  divided  among  the  said  societies  and  corpo- 
rations. 

It  was  agreed  by  the  Committee  that  the  "  Proposed  Book,"  as 
it  was  now  called,  should  be  printed  at  Philadelphia  ;  and  by  Hall 
and  Sellers.  Dr.  White  was  to  see  the  proofs,  and  to  send  them  to 
Dr.  Smith,  who  would  communicate  with  Dr.  Wharton,  who  was 
residing  in  Delaware,  the  rector  of  Emanuel  Church,  Newcastle. 
This  led  to  a  good  deal  of  correspondence  between  Dr.  White  and 
Dr.  Smith,  with  occasional  letters  to  and  from  Dr.  Wharton.     We 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  141 

give  the  most  of  this  correspondence.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  Com- 
mittee construed  liberally  the  leave  given  them  to  make  verbal  and 
grammatical  alterations — more  liberally  than  Dr.  White  himself 
quite  approved.* 


CHAPTER    XLVII. 

Correspondence  between  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  White,  with  a  Letter  from 
Dr.  Wharton  to  the  latter  while  the  Copy  of  the  "  Proposed  Book  " 

WAS    GOING    THROUGH    THE    PRESS,   INCLUDING     Dr.    WHITE'S    "  IilNTS    FOR    A 

Preface,"  and   Dr.  Smith's   Preface — Dr.  Smith   to   the  Rev.   Samuel 
Parker. 

We  proceed  to  give  the  correspondence  referred  to  in  our  last 
chapter  relating  to  the  publication  of  the  Proposed  Book.  For 
the  preservation  of  it,  we  are  indebted,  in  former  years,  to  Bishop 
White  and  Dr.  Smith,  in  later  ones  to  the  excellent  archaeologist 
of  our  church,  Dr.  Perry,  now  Bishop  of  Iowa,  who  first  gave  it 
to  the  public. f 

The  Rev.  Dr.  White  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  October  19,  1785. 
Dear  Sir  :  The  first  proof-sheet  will  accompany  this  and  I  expect 
to  send  you  another  by  Saturday's  post  to  Baltimore.  I  think  we  have 
fallen  into  an  error,  which  Mr.  Hall  says  we  can  easily  correct,  and  our 
brethren  here  join  with  me  in  wishing  it  corrected.  It  is  the  making 
the  Litany  a  necessary  part  of  the  Morning  Service.  The  way  I  would 
propose  to  correct  it  is  thus  :  In  the  rubric  let  it  be  "  The  Litany,  etc., 
to  be  used  on  Sundays  and  other  holidays,  appointed  to  be  observed  by 
this  Church."  After  the  prayer,  "  We  humbly  beseech  thee,  O  Father, 
etc.,"  let  there  be  this  rubric,  "But  when  the  Litany  is  not  used,  the 
three  following  prayers  shall  be  said  instead  thereof;"  then  insert  the 


*  Bishop  White,  in  his  Memoirs  (Second  edition,  p.  109),  referring  to  the  fact  that 
the  Committee  had  been  authorized  to  make  verbal  alterations,  but  were  restrained 
from  departing  in  either  form  or  substance  from  what  had  been  agreed  on  by  the 
Convention,  says  that  "  the  imperfections  evidently  remaining  on  some  points  by  reason 
of  ha^te  [in  the  Convention],  and  which  could  have  been  remedied  had  they  been 
attended  to,  and,  added  to  this,  the  importunities  of  some  of  the  clergy  who  pressed  the 
Committee  to  extend  their  powers  pretty  far,  in  full  confidence  that  the  liberty  would 
be  acceptable  to  all,  were  such  that,  in  the  end,  they  were  drawn  on  to  take  a  greater 
latitude  than  ought  to  be  allowed  in  such  a  work." 

f  In  presenting  it,  in  print,  in  this  volume,  I  have  avoided  the  contractions  in  or- 
thography, which  Bishop  White,  following  a  custom  of  his  youth,  continued  through 
his  life. 


I42  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1785 

prayers  "for  the  Congress."  "for  other  civil  rulers,"  and  "for  all 
conditions;"  then  let  there  follow  the  General  Thanksgiving,  St.  Chry- 
sostom's  Prayer  and  the  Benediction.  To  prevent  repetition  in  the 
Evening  Service,  insert  after  the  prayer  against  the  dangers  of  the 
night,  the  following  rubric  : 

Then  shall  be  said  the  prayer  for  the  Congress  and  the  other  prayers  which  follow 
it  in  the  Morning  Service  to  the  end  thereof. 

There  will  be  occasion  for  a  rubric  at  the  head  of  the  Collects,  Gos- 
pels and  Epistles,  directing  the  use  of  the  Collects  for  each  Sunday  and 
holiday  until  the  next  Sunday  or  holiday;  after  the  suffrages,  at  morning 
prayer  when  the  communion  service  is  not  said;  and  always  at  evening 
prayer. 

Quaere. — Will  it  not  be  best  to  place  the  two  invitations  to  the  com- 
munion at  the  end  of  that  service?  At  present  they  make  an  awkward 
break. 

Please  to  mention  these  matters  to  Dr.  Wharton,  to  whom  I  desire 
my  affectionate  remembrances. 

I  am,  your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

Wm.  White. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

October,  17S5. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  favored  with  yours  of  the  19th,  enclosing  the  first 
sheet  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  shall  expect  a  second  sheet  at  Baltimore 
on  Tuesday 

On  Wednesday  last  Dr.  Wharton  came  to  my  house  in  Chester. 
Thursday  being  a  storm,  we  sat  down  in  the  morning,  and  devoted  the 
whole  day  to  those  parts  of  the  Prayer  Book,  yet  left  to  be  prepared 
for  the  press. 

1st.  As  to  the  office  of  Thanksgiving  for  the  Fruits  of  the  Earth,  we 
wish  to  change  one  of  the  lessons,  and  also  to  make  some  additions  to 
the  Thanksgiving  prayer,  which  will  give  it  a  little  more  animation  ;  by 
taking  something  from  prayers  on  the  same  subject,  which  Dr.  Wharton 
thinks  are  to  be  found  as  well  in  the  Roman  Missal,  as  in  the  works  of 
Bishop  Wilson,  of  Sodor  and  Man — both  which  he  will  consult  on  his 
return  to  New  Castle,  in  sufficient  time  for  the  press. 

But  our  great  business  on  Thursday  was  to  read  over  the  Psalms,  tak- 
ing, as  we  went  along,  your  very  judicious  selection  or  rather  rejection 
of  particular  Psalms  and  parts  of  Psalms.  We  propose  rejecting  some 
parts  more,  which  may  have  escaped  your  notice,  and  retaining  some 
k\v  passages  which  you  have  proposed  to  reject ;  for  by  taking  the  Bible 
translation  some  of  these  passages  are  truly  beautiful  ;  and  therefore  in 
going  over  the  work,  we  constantly  compared  the  Bible  translation  with 
that  of  the   Prayer  Book,  and   find   that   out  of  both,  sometimes  using 


I785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.   D.  143 

the  one  and  sometimes  the  other,  sometimes  in  whole  Psalms,  and  some- 
times in  particular  verses,  we  shall  greatly  improve  the  reading  Psalms 
in  general  ;  but  by  our  plan  there  will  not  so  many  be  retained  upon 
the  whole,  as  you  have  left  standing.  On  my  return  from  Baltimore, 
I  shall  send  you,  or  more  probably  bring  to  Philadelphia  this  part  of  the 
work  ;  and  then  by  counting  up  the  whole  number  of  verses  retained 
and  dividing  them  by  thirty,  we  can  average  the  number  of  verses  (a 
few  over  or  under  as  the  sense  may  require)  which  we  shall  have  for 
daily  service.  Out  of  the  reading  Psalms  to  be  retained  in  our  book, 
it  will  be  easy  to  make  a  selection  of  the  best  metre  translations,  of  the 
best  Psalms,  to  which  there  may  be  an  addition  of  some  of  Watts'  best 
Psalms,  and  hymns  for  the  festivals  and  other  occasions,  which  may  be 
got  from  sundry  authors — I  hope  some  may  be  offered  by  members  of 
our  own  Church  in  America,  who  are  distinguished  for  their  poetical 
talents,  and  not  ashamed  to  exert  them  on  the  lofty  themes  of  religion. 
But  I  am  wandering  and  have  no  time  to  write  what  I  wish  on  this  par- 
ticular topic. 

Dr.  Wharton  left  me  on  Friday,  crossed  over  to  Annapolis,  and  by 
the  good  offices  of  Governor  Paca  and  Mr.  Chase,  settled  all  his  private 
concerns  with  the  intendant,  and  returned  time  enough  to  preach  for 
me  in  Chester  this  afternoon.  He  leaves  me  to-morrow,  but  I  expect 
a  day  from  him  on  his  return  from  Talbot,  when  we  shall  take  up  the 
calendar,  in  which  I  believe  you  have  not  left  us  much  to  do. 

I  now  proceed  to  answer  your  letter,  respecting  the  first  proof-sheet. 

I  do  not  think  it  an  error,  that  the  Litany  is  made  a  part  of  the 
Morning  Service.  I  think  that  service  would  be  very  incomplete  in 
the  essential  parts  of  prayer,  and  would  lose  much  of  its  beauty  if  left 
without  the  Litany.  Although  it  is  directed  to  be  used  every  morning, 
yet  the  use  of  it  is  not  made  so  necessary,  but  that,  where  a  clergyman 
is  weak  in  body,  the  weather  severe,  or  for  any  other  good  reason,  it 
may  not  be  omitted. 

But  I  submit  to  your  consideration,  whether  as  you  propose  to  alter 
the  rubric,  viz.,  "The  Litany  to  be  used  on  Sundays  and  other  holi- 
days"— Wednesdays  and  Fridays  will  be  considered  as  holidays.  And 
surely  in  large  towns  and  cities  (of  which  America  will  have  many  in  a 
hundred  years  more)  the  good  old  custom  of  week-day  prayers  will  not 
be  laid  aside.  But,  without  the  Litany,  Wednesday  and  Friday  prayers 
(there  being  no  sermon),  would  not  draw  many  to  church.  Let  not  our 
abridgments  be  too  great,  at  least  till  we  see  how  what  hath  been  done 
will  be  received.  I  think,  then,  there  will  be  no  harm  in  leaving  the 
rubric  before  the  Litany,  as  it  now  is;  only  striking  out  the  word 
"every"— and  after  the  prayer,  "We  humbly  beseech  thee,  etc.,"  you 
may  add  the  rubric  which  you  propose,  viz  :  "Bui  when  the  Litany 
is  not  used,  the  three  following  prayers  shall  he  said  instead  thereof" — 


144  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l7"0 

which  (as  the  latter  rubric  may  be  supposed  to  explain  the  former) 
will  at  least  imply  a  discretionary  power  in  the  minister  to  omit  the 
Litany  even  in  Morning  Service,  when  in  his  discretion  he  thinks  it 
necessary. 

If  the  place  of  the  two  exhortations  to  the  communion  is  to  be 
altered,  Dr.  Wharton  and  myself  are  of  opinion  that  they  should  not 
be  placed  at  the  end  of  the  Communion  Service  (for  it  would  appear 
very  awkward  to  have  an  exhortation  to  an  act  of  worship,  standing 
after  the  act  itself)  but  at  the  beginning,  viz.,  before  the  prayer,  "Al- 
mighty God  unto  whom  all  hearts  be  open"  etc.,  with  a  rubric  separating 
them  from  the  Communion  Service,  and  directing  that  they  be  read 
when  the  notice  is  given,  viz.,  on  the  Sunday  or  some  holiday  before 
the  communion. 

The  proof-sheet  is  returned.  You  will  see  the  corrections  proposed 
by  Dr.  Wharton  and  myself  on  the  margin  ;  and  the  reasons  will  be 
obvious.  Thus  in  the  Litany — "In  all  time  of  our  tribulation:"  a  semi- 
colon— yet  it  is  connected  with  "Good  Lord  deliver  us" — but  at  the 
end  of  the  sentence,  after  the  words  "Day  of  Judgment"  there  is  only  a 
comma,  and  so  in  all  the  preceding  sentences,  each  of  which  should 
have  a  semi-colon  at  the  end  of  the  sentence,  as  well  as  in  the  previous 
division  of  the  different  members  of  the  sentence. 

After  a  proof-sheet  or  two  more,  I  would  not  wish  to  give  you  the 
trouble  of  sending  the  remainder  to  me,  unless  you  have  any  alteration 
to  propose ;  in  which  we  must  be  very  delicate,  in  consideration  of  the 
great  trust  committed  to  us.  Dr.  Wharton's  best  compliments.  He 
sits  by  me  while  I  subscribe  myself, 

Yours,  etc., 

Wm.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  October  21,  1785. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  expect  to  send  you  by  this  opportunity  the  two  first 
proof-sheets. 

Lest  you  may  have  left  Chester  before  the  return  of  Wednesday  post, 
I  must  repeat  the  substance  of  my  former  letter. 

We  are  all  here  of  opinion  that  the  Litany  ought  not  to  be  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  Morning  Prayer.  The  alteration,  if  you  approve  of 
it,  may  be  made  as  follows :  let  the  rubric  before  the  Litany  say,  "  to  be 
used  on  Sundays  and  other  holidays  appointed  by  this  Church."  After 
the  Litany  with  its  attendant  Prayers,  insert  this  rubric — "And  when 
the  Litany  is  not  said,  the  three  following  Prayers  shall  be  used  instead 
thereof,"  setting  down  the  prayers  for  the  Congress,  for  the  other 
rulers,  and  for  all  conditions.  Then  set  down  the  General  Thanksgiv- 
ing,  etc.     In   the   Evening   Service,   after   the   Prayer  for   Protection 


I785]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  H5 

during  the  Night,  let  there  be  a  reference  to  the  Morning  Prayer  for 
the  residue. 

There  is  wanting  a  rubric  at  the  head  of  the  Collects,  Epistles  and 
Gospels,  enjoining  the  use  of  the  proper  Collect  in  the  Morning  Prayer 
when  used  separate  from  the  Communion  Service,  and  always  in  the 
Evening  Praver. 

Qurere.  Will  not  the  two  Exhortations  in  the  Communion  Service 
stand  belter  either  in  the  beginning  or  the  end  ?  At  present  they  make 
an  awkward  break. 

Quaere,  the  propriety  of  introducing  a  rubric  before  the  Prayer  for 
our  Rulers,  in  the  Communion  Service,  specifying  that  the  same  is  to 
be  said,  when  that  service  is  not  used  with  the  Morning  Prayer.  The 
clergy  here  wish  for  it ;  and  many  of  our  hearers  wish  that  we  had  been 
as  tender  of  repetition  here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

I  hope  to  hear  from  you  by  return  of  the  post,  and  am 

Yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 

P.  S. — I  observe  that  the  second  proof-sheet  has  a  rubric,  expressing 
that  the  Prayer  for  Congress,  etc.,  shall  be  said  in  the  evening  and  at 
other  times  when  the  Litany  is  not  said  ;  this  removes  my  objection  in 
part,  but  the  two  rubrics  are  contradictory.  I  think  you  will  prefer  the 
arrangement  I  have  proposed. 

I  hope  you  have  attended  to  the  Psalms  and  Lessons.  I  recollect  in 
the  case  of  the  Venite,  we  agreed  to  strike  out  the  Latin  ;  accordingly 
I  have  done  it  in  the  proof-sheet  to  the  other  Latin  introductions. 
For  the  same  reason  (/.  e.,  its  being  agreed  on  in  the  case  of  the  Venite) 
I  have  erased  the  unnecessary  provisions  against  repetition. 

Mr.  Hall  keeps  the  second  proof-sheet  so  long  on  its  second  coming 
from  the  press,  that  I  have  no  time  to  review  it ;  and  indeed  I  have 
reviewed  the  other  but  imperfectly.  I  hope  your  accuracy  will  render 
another  reading  unnecessary. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  October  23,  1785. 
Dear  Sir  :  Similar  proof-sheets  to  the  enclosed  were  to  have  been 
sent  by  Saturday's  post ;  but  owing  to  the  press,  they  were  a  few  min- 
utes too  late,  and  are  now  in  the  office  with  my  letter.  I  determined 
to  take  the  chance  of  the  stage,  but  knowing  the  uncertainty  as  to  the 
delivery  of  letters,  shall  let  mine  remain  with  the  sheets  in  the  post- 
office. 

Yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 

P.  S. — I  have  altered  the  arrangement  in  this  proof-sheet  according  to 
the  plan  proposed  in  my  letter — merely  for  your  inspection. 
10 


146  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  October  25,  1785. 

Dear  Sir  :  Owing  to  the  press,  I  was  a  few  minutes  too  late  for  the 
last  post,  i  sent  proof-sheets  by  the  wagon,  which  I  consider  as  an 
uncertain  mode  of  conveyance. 

In  the  letter  which  encloses  the  proof-sheets  by  this  opportunity, 
instead  of  three  prayers  read  four ;  I  wrote  from  memory  and  forgot 
that  for  the  clergy. 

I  enclose  you  extracts  from  the  constitution ;  to  prevent  errors  of  the 
transcriber  you  will  compare  it  with  the  originals;  I  would  do  it  now, 
but  am  in  great  haste. 

Please  to  express  at  the  head  of  the  letter  to  the  Bishops,  that  the 
original  goes  by  the  "  Harmony,"  Captain  Willet,  from  Philadelphia. 

I  wish  my  affectionate  respects  to  such  of  our  brethren  at  the  Conven- 
tion as  I  have  the  pleasure  of  being  acquainted  with. 

I  am 

Yours,  etc., 

W.m.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Baltimore,  October  28,  1785. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  gave  you  my  thoughts  so  fully  in  my  letter  from 
Chester  last  post  concerning  the  alteration  of  rubric  before  the  Litany, 
that  I  need  not  add  anything  further  on  that  head.  As  the  number  of 
country  congregations  in  America  exceed  those  in  towns,  I  may  say  fifty 
to  one,  and  cannot  have  the  Litany  but  as  part  of  the  Morning  Service 
(and  which,  with  the  abridgments  now  proposed,  would  appear  very 
short  and  incomplete  without  the  Litany),  and  as  for  these  reasons  the 
Convention  agreed  that  the  Litany  should  be  printed  hi,  and  as  a  part 
of,  the  Morning  Service,  it  would  not  be  proper  for  us  to  make  so  mate- 
rial an  alteration  as  to  put  four  prayers  just  after  the  Litany,  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  same,  and  which  will  be  considered  as  an  invitation  to 
indolent  or  lukewarm  readers  of  prayers  to  cut  the  people  generally  out 
of  their  general  supplication.  Of  these  sentiments  are  the  Convention 
here,  whom  I  consulted  on  this  point,  but  without  intimating  to  them 
that  any  such  change  was  proposed  by  us  of  the  Committee,  but  that  it 
had  been  mentioned  by  some  as  a  matter  worthy  of  consideration  at 
some  future  general  convention. 

The  four  prayers  stand  very  properly  where  they  now  stand  as  an 
essential  part  of  the  Evening  Service  at  all  times,  and  would  not  stand 
so  properly  in  the  Morning  Service,  where  they  are  only  proposed  as  a 
conditional  part ;  that  is  when  the  Litany  is  not  used,  and  when  that 
condition  takes  place  it  is  very  easy  to  turn  forward  one  leaf  to  read 


1/85]  &EV>   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D. 


147 


them.  Besides  this  the  Evening  Service  would  appear  quite  naked 
without  them.  But  I  need  not  have  written  half  so  much  to  you  on 
this  subject,  only  from  a  desire  that  we  should  by  a  candid  exchange  of 
sentiments  go  through  the  great  work  committed  to  us,  with  the  same 
prefect  agreement  with  which  it  hath  hitherto  been  conducted ;  and  I 
know  you  will  make  no  change  from  what  was  done  in  Convention  ; 
unless  in  the  exercise  of  the  discretionary  power  given  us,  we  can  all 
as  a  Committee,  agree  upon  the  expediency  of  such  change. 

As  1  said  in  my  former  letter,  then,  let  the  word  "  every"  be  struck 
out  of  the  rubric  before  the  Litany,  and  let  the  rest  of  the  rubric  stand 
as  it  is  printed  in  the  enclosed  proof;  and  let  the  four  prayers,  and 
indeed  the  whole  Evening  Service,  stand  also  just  as  they  are  in  the 
same  enclosed  proof;  with  their  several  rubrics  as  they  are,  and  there 
will  be  sufficient  latitude  for  any  minister  when  necessary  to  omit  the 
Litany,  and  supply  its  place  from  the  Evening  Service;  which  last 
Service  will  look  much  better  in  this  form.  You  will  be  pleased  to 
attend  to  such  corrections  as  I  have  made,  and  particularly  in  the 
prayer  for  "all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men."  The  words  "good 
estate  of  the  Catholic  Church  "  have  been  objected  to  by  our  Convention 
here,  1st,  because  "good  estate"  maybe  considered  in  a  worldly  sense, 
and  if  taken  in  any  other  is  but  an  awkward  or  antiquated  expression  ; 
and  2dly,  the  word  "Catholic"  although  intelligible  enough  to  many, 
yet  it  is  not  approved  of  by  many  others,  on  account  of  the  vulgar 
application  of  it  to  one  particular  Church.  Now  as  this  prayer  for 
"all  sorts  and  conditions"  is  a  general  prayer,  never  to  be  used  when 
the  Litany  is  used,  why  may  not  the  Church  be  prayed  for  in  the  same 
words  here  as  in  the  Litany,  viz.:  "thy  holy  Church  universal?" 
And  then  the  prayer  will  be,  "more  especially  we  pray  for  thy  holy 
Church  universal,  that  it  may  be  guided,"  etc.  Or  if  you  think  it  will 
run  better — "more  especially  we  pray  that  thy  holy  Church  universal 
may  be  so  guided,"  etc. 

One  or  the  other  of  these  corrections  is  desired  by  our  Convention, 
and  I  have  given  you  their  reasons,  and  if  you  will  agree  to  the  altera- 
tion, I  heartily  concur  with  you,  and  think  it  will  be  approved  by  all 
our  body. 

I  expect  to  hear  from  you  by  next  week's  post.  Direct  to  me  at 
Chester  by  the  Eastern  Shore  post.  I  have  a  great  many  people  talking 
round  me,  and  write  in  haste. 

Yours, 

Wm.  Smith. 
Rev.  Dr.  White. 

P.  S. — Your  two  packets  by  post  have  just  come  to  my  hand.  What 
you  propose  as  a  rubric  for  the  use  of  the  Collects  is  proper.  The  other 
parts  of  your  letters  are  either  answered  in  this  and  my  former  letter, 


I48  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1785 

or  shall  be  on  my  return  to  Chester,  for  which  place  I  am  just  setting 
off,  via  Annapolis.  I  say  no  more  about  the  Litany.  Dr.  West,  etc., 
and  some  more  clergy,  Mr.  Cutting  in  particular,  who  have  come  here 
since  our  Convention  adjourned,  and  who  are  now  with  me,  all  concur 
in  this  letter,  and  that  no  alterations  be  made  respecting  the  use  of  the 
Litany,  which  they  all  say  must  continue  a  necessary  part  of  the  Morning 
Service,  unless  dispensed  with  by  any  minister  in  his  discretion,  for 
want  of  health,  shortness  of  time,  such  as  riding  ten  or  twelve  miles  to 
read  prayers  and  preach  twice  in  the  same  day.  A  future  Convention 
may  consider  further  upon  the  whole,  in  the  mean  time  we  do  our  duty 
in  letting  it  remain  as  agreed  upon  by  the  body  from  which  we  derive 
our  power  as  a  committee. 

Dr.  West  and  a  few  more  are  about  raising  the  money  from  this  State 
for  the  book,  but  wish  to  have  at  least  one  thousand  copies  for  Maryland 
alone,  so  that  Mr.  Hall,  if  not  too  late,  should  be  told  that  four  thou- 
sand copies  will  be  too  few.  He  may  venture  on  five  or  six  thousand, 
if  he  has  paper  enough  ready. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  October  29,  1785. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  expected  to  have  sent  you  the  third  half  sheet  by  this 
post,  but  it  will  be  not  quite  ready.  Mr.  Hall  intends  to  proceed 
quicker  hereafter. 

We  expect  the  paper  this  evening ;  on  receiving  the  proof-sheets  from 
you  (which  I  suppose  will  be  on  Monday),  we  shall  have  one  sheet 
ready  for  the  last  impression. 

I  say  the  less  as  I  consider  it  uncertain  whether  this  will  reach  you  in 
Baltimore.  Yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  October  30,  17S5. 

I  have  just  got  back  to  Chester  from  Baltimore  by  the  way  of  Annap- 
olis, which  last  place  I  left  yesterday  afternoon.  By  the  date  you  will 
perceive  that  I  write  on  Sunday,  a  rainy  morning,  service  put  off  till 
the  afternoon.  As  soon  as  service  is  over,  I  must  go  to  Dorset,  to 
attend  the  baptism  of  my  grandson,  and  bring  Mrs.  Smith  home,  who 
has  been  waiting  for  me  more  than  a  week  past.  My  present  letter  will 
therefore  be  short ;  nor  is  there  occasion  for  a  long  one.  Mr.  Bryson 
writes  me  that  he  delivered  to  you  my  letter  from  Chester  by  last  week's 
post.  To  both  your  letters  which  I  received  at  Baltimore,  I  left  an 
answer  to  go  by  yesterday's  post,  which  I  hope  you  will  receive  to-mor- 
row, containing  the  general  sentiments  of  the  clergy  of  our  late  Con- 


I785]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  [49 

vention,  agreeing  with  what  I  wrote  you  from  Chester  and  have  repeated 
from  Baltimore,  concerning  the  Litany,  etc. 

By  your  last  letter  you  seem  to  have  attended  to  the  rubric  before  the 
prayer  for  Congress,  which  in  my  first  letter  (not  received  by  you  at  the 
time  of  writing)  I  wished  you  to  notice,  as  it  would  remove  your  objec- 
tions, etc.  You  say  it  has  removed  them  in  part,  but  leaves  a  contra- 
diction between  the  two  rubrics.  This  too  you  will  find  removed  by 
striking  out  the  word  "every"  before  the  word  "morning"  in  the 
rubric  prefixed  to  the  Litany,  so  that  comparing  the  two  rubrics  to- 
gether, sufficient  latitude  will  be  left,  without  either  disbanding  the 
Litany,  or  putting  a  rubric  and  substitution  of  prayers  after  it,  which 
would  stand  as  an  invitation  to  the  lukewarm  or  lazy,  always  to  pass 
over  the  Litany,  which  in  the  idea  of  all  the  clergy  I  have  seen  was 
considered  by  the  Convention  as  a  part  of  the  Morning  Service,  in- 
dispensable except  for  some  good  reasons,  and  it  hurts  their  feelings  to 
think  the  use  of  the  Litany  should  be  thought  a  burden,  or  that  our 
service  could  be  complete  without  this  excellent  part.  Of  all  this  I  have 
written  fully,  candidly  and  more  than  enough,  and  only  repeat  lest  my 
Baltimore  packet  miscarry.  All  things  will  stand  well,  at  least  in  this 
first  edition  of  our  book,  and  till  next  Convention,  in  the  order  in 
which  we  fixed  them  at  Philadelphia,  and  as  they  are  in  the  proof-sheets 
you  have  sent  me,  only  striking  out  the  single  word  "every"  in  the 
rubric  before  the  Litany. 

I  have  no  time  to  read  critically  the  proofs,  farther  than  I  did  in  a 
few  minutes  at  Baltimore.  They  will  be  very  safe  in  your  hands,  with 
one  or  two  readings.  Let  them  be  worked  off  as  fast  as  possible,  and  a 
thousand  copies  or  two  more  than  we  thought  of  at  first  (which  I  think 
was  four  thousand)  if  paper  can  be  got.     The  book  will  be  in  great.* 

Baltimore  alone  a  subscription  is  on  foot,  and  Dr.  West  will 

speedily  remit  a  large  part  of  the  $100,  if  not  more  than  the  whole,  to 
which  I  shall  add  considerably  from  this  shore,  as  soon  as  I  return  from 
Dorset,  which  I  hope  will  be  in  three  or  four  days  at  farthest. 

If  my  letter  from  Baltimore  is  not  come  to  your  hand,  you  will  attend 
to  the  following  corrections  which  I  made  in  the  proofs  of  the  second 
sheet  enclosed  therein. 

At  the  end  of  morning  and  evening  prayer,  viz.,  "Here  endeth  the 
order  of  morning  [evening]  prayer" — Dele  words  "order  of" — lest  it 
should  be  implied  that  something  might  yet  be  prayed  which  is  dis- 
orderly— prayer  for  clergy,  instead  of  "all  bishops  and  other  ministers, 
and  all  congregations"  insert  "the  congregations,"  to  avoid  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  word  all  so  near  the  first  all.  But  I  think  the  whole  sen- 
tence might  be  better  altered  thus — -"send  down  upon  the  bishops  and 
ministers  of  thy  church  and  all  congregations,"  etc. 

*  Manuscript  imperfect. 


150  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [I/85 

In  the  end  of  the  rubric  entitled  "Prayers  and  Thanksgivings  upon 
several  occasions" — to  avoid  the  words  "prayers"  and  "prayer," 
occurring  in  the  space  of  one  line,  let  the  word  "service"  be  put  for 
the  word  "prayer"  and  read  "two  final  prayers  of  morning  and  even- 
ing service." 

In  the  prayer  for  "all  sorts  and  conditions"  please  to  make  the  cor- 
rection proposed  by  the  Baltimore  Convention,  as  in  my  said  letter 
from  thence,  and  read  thus:  "More  especially  we  pray  for  thy  holy 
church  universal,  that  it  may  be  so  guided,"  etc.  Or,  "We  pray 
that  thy  holy  church  universal  maybe  so  guided."  This  will  agree 
with  the  prayer  for  the  church  as  in  the  Litany,  instead  of  which  this  is 
to  be  used,  and  rids  us  of  the  exceptionable  word  too  many,  viz., 
"Catholic,"  and  also  the  awkward  words  "good  estate  of  the  church," 
by  which  some  will  say  we  mean  good  Glebes  and  salaries  or  estate 
merely  temporal.  These  little  alterations  are  in  our  power,  and  not 
improper  when  desired  by  any  respectable  number  of  our  brethren. 

Our  Convention  read  over  with  general  approbation  the  proposed 
improvements  and  alterations;  but  stormy  weather  and  that  bay  which 
often  renders  business  precarious,  made  our  meeting  thin,  and  we 
adjourned  to  meet  at  Annapolis  in  April,  or  sooner  if  called  by  me  as 
President. 

Next  week  my  copy  of  the  Address  to  the  Archbishops,  etc.,  will  go 
by  a  ship  from  Baltimore  or  Annapolis.  I  wish  the  sentence,  "  That 
these  States  should  become //w,  sovereign,"  etc.,  had  been  expressed 
"separate  Empires,  States  or  Governments."  It  seems  to  insult,  or  at 
least  to  renew  old  complaints  that  we  were  not  free  before.  Can  an 
alteration  be  made  in  the  other  copies?  I  could  yet  have  it  made  in 
mine  by  a  letter  to  London  per  packet  New  York.  I  beg  another  copy 
of  said  Address,  for  I  was  obliged  to  send  mine,  on  an  hour's  notice, 
without  taking  a  copy.  Governor  Paca  and  our  other  friends  in 
Annapolis,  except  as  above,  approve  the  address,  and  it  will  be  easy  to 
get  a  certificate  from  the  Executive  of  the  State  that  granting  the 
prayer  of  it  can  give  no  offence,  but  is  perfectly  consonant  to  the  Con- 
stitution. I  shall  be  at  Philadelphia  time  enough  for  the  Psalms,  Les- 
sons, Calendar,  Preface,  etc.,  to  save  this  voluminous  writing,  for  I  find 
I  cannot  make  my  letters  short.  In  two  or  three  weeks,  perhaps  sooner 
if  the  bank  will  assist  us,  I  shall  see  you. 

Yours, 

W.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  November  2,  1785. 
Dear  Sir  :   I  have  received  yours  of  the  28th,  which  I  have  sent  to 
the  press  in  the  manner  you  approve  of,  having  first  reviewed  and  com- 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  151 

pared  the  pointing  of  it  with  an  Oxford  edition  of  the  Prayer  Book 
printed  in  1775,  an<3  adjusted  it  accordingly.  This  I  think  you  cannot 
bul  approve  of,  as  the  said  edition  appears  to  have  been  made  on  great 
deliberation  in  that  seat  of  letters.  I  observed  that  wherever  you  had 
altered  the  pointing  in  the  proof-sheet,  you  had  done  it  conformably  to 
the  same  book.  I  intend  to  bestow  the  same  pains  on  all  I  shall  send 
to  the  press. 

I  expect  to  send  by  this  opportunity  a  proof-sheet,  containing  the 
greater  part  of  the  Communion  Service,  which  will  come  to  me  the 
second  time  from  the  press  ;  another  is  also  in  hand.  I  mentioned  to 
you  in  a  letter  which  I  sent  with  the  Sermons  by  Thursday's  stage  (and 
which  do  not  appear  to  have  come  to  hand  when  you  were  setting  out 
for  Annapolis)  that  some  of  our  brethren,  supported  by  remarks  of  the 
people,  thought  the  prayer  for  the  civil  rulers  an  unnecessary  repetition 
in  the  Communion  Service  ;  and  that  the  evil  might  be  avoided  by  a 
rubric  dispensing  with  it,  provided  the  Morning  Service  had  been  used 
immediately  before.  I  told  them  I  doubted  of  our  right  to  alter  it,  and 
therefore  merely  mention  it  to  you  as  information. 

Mr.  Provost  has  enclosed  to  me  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  the  President 
of  Congress  to  the  Minister  at  the  Court  of  Great  Britain.  After  stat- 
ing our  late  proceedings  and  the  political  hindrances  on  a  former  occa- 
sion, he  says,  that  if  our  application  to  the  bishops  should  come  before 
the  King  and  Ministry,  it  is  the  wish  of  "the  Church  of  England  Mem- 
bers of  Congress,"  that  Mr.  Adams  may  assure  them  of  our  right  to 
take  the  said  step  and  that  the  granting  our  petition  would  not  be  an 
intermeddling  in  the  affairs  of  these  States. 

You  give  me  leave  to  go  on  with  the  press  alone,  after  the  first  sheet 

or  two.     But  it  is  a  liberty  I  shall  never  use,  unless  the  press  should  be 

like  to  stop  without  it ;  which  is  not  a  probable  case.     At  any  rate,  I 

shall  not  venture  on  any  alterations  without  consent. 

I  am, 

Yours,  etc., 

W.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

I  shall  direct  three  thousand  copies. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  November  2,  1785. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  have  received  yours  from  Chester,  and  indeed  all  which 
you  mention  to  have  written  hitherto. 

I  shall  attend  to  the  alterations  you  propose;  all  which  I  approve, 
except  the  word  Ministers  for  Pastors  in  the  prayer  for  the  clergy,  which 
you  only  seem  to  throw  out  for  consideration. 


152  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPOXDEKCE    OF   THE  ^1785 

The  latter  word  is  used  in  all  the  other  places  and  was  that  approved 
of  by  the  Convention. 

I  am  sorry  I  made  it  necessary  for  you  to  write  so  much  about  the 
Litany;  it  is  fixed  to  your  mind  and  I  am  satisfied. 

I  shall  do  all  you  desire  in  respect  to  advertising,  etc.,  except  that  it 
cannot  be  in  this  day's  paper,  which  came  to  my  house  before  your 
letter. 

What  you  propose  respecting  the  letter  to  the  bishops  is  too  late ;  or 
I  should  not  object  to  the  alteration.  The  original  is  gone  by  Willet, 
and  I  suppose  the  other  copy  goes  to-day  from  New  York  by  the 
packet,  and  will  probably  (as  the  packets  sail  fast)  be  delivered  before 
any  subsequent  letter  can  reach  England.  I  will  send  you  another 
copy,  but  cannot  transcribe  it  for  this  day's  post. 

I  am,  in  haste, 

Yours,  etc., 

W.  White. 
Communion  Service. 

Quaere,  the  insertion  in  the  rubric  before  the  exhortation,  the  words 
"  or  so  much  thereof  as  he  may  think  convenient."  I  have  taken  the 
liberty  but  can  easily  expunge. 

Quaere,  the  leaving  out  these  words  in  the  rubric  before  the  collect 
"so  that  the  ordinary,  etc."  Probably  it  will  be  thought  the  ordinary 
need  have  nothing  to  do,  without  complaint  from  the  person  forbidden. 

In  the  sentences,  quaere  the  propriety  of  inserting  those  which  relate 
to  the  support  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  it  is  expressly  said  the 
money  shall  be  given  to  the  poor. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  November  16,  1785. 
Dear  Sir  :  After  you  left  me,  I  thought  it  best  to  continue  the 
consideration  of  the  subject  which  had  been  before  us.  Accord- 
ingly I  corrected,  in  the  way  of  private  memorandum,  to  the  end 
of  the  Psalms.  Afterwards,  finding  that  the  Psalms  contained  2,498 
verses,  and  that  they  would  be  reduced  about  one-third  by  our 
review,  I  made  my  division  ;  in  which  I  have  taken  care  to  make  the 
portions  as  equal  as  the  analogy  of  the  subjects,  and  sometimes  the 
extraordinary  length  of  single  Psalms  permitted.  In  some  places  I 
have  omitted  a  few  verses  of  what  we  had  retained,  as  not  suiting  the 
preceding  and  following.  I  send  you  the  fruit  of  my  labor,  hoping  you 
Avill  review  it  and  send  me  such  alterations  as  may  occur  to  you ;  which 
you  may  easily  do  (as  I  have  with  me  a  copy)  by  merely  alluding  to  my 
subdivisions.  I  will  then  fairly  fix  the  book,  pasting  from  an  old  Bible 
such  verses  as  we  prefer  of  that  translation. 


1 785 J  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  1 53 

The  press  began  on  Monday,  and  Mr.  Hall  assures  me  it  shall  work 
constantly ;  and  that  when  the  assembly  shall  rise,  he  will  set  two 
presses  agoing. 

I  am,  yours,  etc., 

W.  White. 
Dr.  Smith. 

I  suppose  it  will  be  best  in  the  Ash  Wednesday  Service  to  omit  the 
Commination  Psalm,  which  may  be  read  on  that  occasion  in  the  proper 
place;  and  to  introduce  the  prayer  immediately  after  the  collect,  with 
a  rubric,  directing  the  reading  of  them  after  the  Litany  and  imme- 
diately before  the  General  Thanksgiving. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  November  23,  1785. 

Dear  Sir:  No  letter  came  to  hand  from  you  to-day,  which  I  suppose 
is  owing  to  your  visit  to  Annapolis ;  and  that  on  your  return  you  will 
carefully  revise  the  Psalms  and  examine  the  division  I  have  proposed. 

On  looking  over  the  offices  as  they  stand  prepared  in  the  Prayer 
Book,  I  determined  to  propose  the  following  matters  to  your  considera- 
tion : 

1.  In  the  Baptismal  Service,  will  it  not  be  best  to  omit  the  command 
to  kneel  at  the  latter  part  of  it,  this  being  often  inconvenient,  espe- 
cially in  private  houses?  As  we  have  shortened  the  printing  of  the 
private  baptism,  by  referring  to  the  public  for  all  that  follows  the 
declaration,  "We  receive  this  child,"  etc.,  may  it  not  be  further 
shortened  by  reference  as  follows?  viz.  :  after  the  address,  "I  certify 
you,"  etc.,  insert  this  rubric — 

Then  shall  follow  the  gospel  from  St.  Mark  x.  13,  with  the  exhortation  and  prayer 
following  the  same,  as  in  the  form  of  Public  Baptism. 

2.  In  the  beginning  of  the  Marriage  Service,  we  have  changed  the 
word  congregation  into  the  word  company.  Quaere,  is  not  either  word 
improper,  as  there  used,  if  it  be  in  a  private  room,  and  will  it  not  be 
better  to  speak  only  of  our  being  in  the  sight  of  God? 

3dly.  In  the  Burial  Service,  this  verse  was  struck  out,  "Lord,  let  me 
know  my  end,"  etc.  But  as  it  stands  in  the  Burial  Service  is  it  not 
unexceptionable,  and  will  it  not  be  the  best  introduction  of  the  Psalm? 

4thly.  In  the  Forms  at  Sea,  there  are  two  Thanksgiving  Psalms.  I 
think  one  (viz. :   the  last)  will  be  sufficient. 

I  was  in  hopes  of  having  for  you  the  fifth  form  from  the  press,  but 
am  disappointed.  The  two  enclosed  forms  will  be  finally  struck  off  this 
week. 

I  am,  yours,  etc., 

W.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 


154  LIFE   AN  I    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  D785 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  November  30,  1705. 
Dear  Sir  :   I  suppose  you  have  not  returned  from  the  Western  shore, 
from  my  not  hearing  by  this  day's  post.   .   .   . 

The  fifth  form  was  sent  to  me  on  Saturday,  and  is  now  working. 
The  sixth  is  not  ready.  I  regret,  however,  your  not  seeing  them  in 
proof ;  the  less  however  as  it  is  plain  sailing  and  there  can  be  no  errors, 
unless  typographical,  which  I  shall  endeavour  to  prevent. 

I  am,  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  Wharton  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

New  Castle,  November  29,  1785. — At  night. 
Dear  Sir:  ....  I  have  looked  over  the  lessons  which  you  have 
retained  or  adopted — can  see  no  objection  to  any  of  them,  unless  you 
shoul.l  deem  it  more  proper  to  adopt  some  of  the  exhortations  to 
repentance  from  the  Prophets,  instead  of  the  lessons  from  Genesis  for 
the  Lent  Sundays.  Perhaps  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  would  be  no 
improper  lesson  or  lessons  as  preparatory  to  the  completion  of  the 
Christian  sacrifice.  Your  idea  of  suiting  the  lessons  to  the  several  sea- 
sons of  the  Ecclesiastical  year  agrees  perfectly  with  mine.  The  selec- 
tion which  you  have  made,  I  think,  meets  this  idea.  I  observe  but 
one  lesson  from  Daniel,  nineteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity,  cap.  three. 
Now  I  conceive  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  chapters,  containing  the 
prophetic  history  of  the  four  great  Empires  and  of  the  coming  of  Christ, 
to  be  very  interesting.  As  I  observed  before,  they  would  suit  well  the 
season  of  Lent,  at  least  the  ninth  chapter.  As  to  the  general  calendar, 
I  apprehend  the  committee  has  power  to  alter  it,  as  the  Convention 
judged  proper  to  omit  the  Saints'  days.  I  would  be  for  retaining, 
however,  the  names  of  a  few  such  as  Lady-day,  Michaelmas,  All  Saints', 
with  the  Ap  isttes'  days — St.  Stephen  and  Innocents.  These  last  three, 
being  Scripture  festivals,  should  not  be  omitted — I  mean  a  commemo- 
ration of  Scriptural  persons  and  martyrs.  All  Saints'  days  of  more 
modern  date  should  be  expunged.  No  mention,  I  suppose,  will  be 
made  of  fast  or  abstinence  days. 

Yours  entirely, 

C.  H.  Wharton. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  December  6,  1785. 
Dear  Sir  :   My  last  three  letters,  lately  written  to  you  and  which  you 
had  not  seen  when  we  parted,  contain  so  much  matter  for  your  considera- 
tion that  I  ought  not  perhaps  to  burden  you  with  more  until  those  points 


I785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 55 

are  settled.  But  thinking  you  may  possibly  wish  to  have  the  Table 
of  Lessons  before  you  at  the  same  time,  1  herewith  send  it,  together 
with  a  proposed  rubric  for  the  Psalms.  I  wish  you  to  attend  particu- 
larly to  the  note  written  lengthwise  of  the  paper  on  the  Table  of  Lessons 
and  containing  a  new  arrangement  which  I  have  proposed  in  conse- 
quence of  an  observation  of  Dr.  Wharton's  after  examining  the  said 
table  here  enclosed  ;  which  he  says  he  approves  of  after  an  attentive 
consideration. 

I  am,  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

P.  S. — Since  writing  the  above,  it  came  into  my  head  to  draw  up  a 
few  hints  towards  a  preface.  If  you  think  they  will  be  not  useful 
towards  that  purpose,  throw  them  into  the  fire. 

Hints  Towards  a  Preface. 

This  Church,  following  the  example  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
times  past,  as  is  set  forth  in  the  preface  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
hath  upon  weighty  considerations  made  such  alterations  in  the  form  of 
divine  worship,  as  seem  at  this  time  either  necessary  or  expedient. 

The  alterations,  to  which  her  attention  was  in  the  first  place  drawn, 
were  such  as  had  become  necessary  in  the  prayers  for  our  civil  rulers. 
These  have  been  accommodated  to  the  Revolution,  which,  in  the  course 
of  divine  Providence,  has  taken  place  in  the  United  States;  and  the 
principal  care  herein  has  been  to  make  them  conformable  to  the  proper 
end  of  all  such  addresses,  "  That  we  may  lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives 
in  all  godliness  and  honesty."  And  whereas  it  has  been  the  practice 
of  the  Church  of  England  to  set  apart  certain  days  for  the  rendering 
of  thanks  to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  Universe  for  signal  mercies 
vouchsafed  to  that  Church  and  Kingdom,  it  has  in  like  manner  been 
now  thought  to  tend  to  godliness,  that  there  should  be  two  annual 
solemn  days  of  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  the  dis- 
tinguished blessings  of  the  land  in  which  we  live ;  in  order  that  we  may 
be  thus  moved  to  gratitude  for  these  mercies  of  his  good  Providence, 
which  might  otherwise  be  the  occasions  of  licentiousness. 

The  alterations  of  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  are  chiefly, 
either  for  the  avoiding  of  repetition,  or  for  the  disuse  of  such  words  as 
have  varied  from  their  former  meaning,  or  for  the  arranging  of  the 
prayers  in  a  method  more  easy  for  the  worshipper.  In  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  one  clause  of  uncertain  meaning,  which  was  introduced  into  the 
Church  by  the  Council  of  Aquileia  about  400  years  after  Christ,  is 
omitted. 

As  the  Psalms  are  a  considerable  part  of  the  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer,  it  may  be  proper  to  mention  in  this  place  the  reason  of  their 
being  so  considerably  shortened.     "All  Scripture  is  given  for  doctrine 


I56  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1/85 

and  instruction  in  righteousness."  Yet  it  is  supposed  that  all  parts 
thereof  were  not  indited  for  Christian  worship ;  and  that  the  Church 
hath  a  latitude  to  select  such  parts  as  she  shall  judge  best  suited  thereto. 
Therefore  such  portions  only  of  the  Psalms  are  retained  as  were  thought 
the  most  beautiful  and  affecting.  In  order  to  add  to  the  propriety 
and  sublimity  of  the  psalter,  the  translation  in  the  Bible  has  been  pre- 
ferred, where  it  was  thought  to  have  a  stronger  tendency  than  the  other 
to  raise  devotion.  A  new  division  became  necessary  in  consequence  of 
the  preceding  changes;  and  it  was  supposed  that  the  excellence  of  this 
part  of  the  service  would  be  still  more  increased,  by  the  permission  to 
combine  it  with  that  ancient  doxology  somewhat  shortened — the  Gloria 
in  Excelsis. 

In  regard  to  the  reading  of  the  Holy  Scripture  at  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer,  the  same  reasons  which  occasioned  a  select  Table  of 
First  Lessons  for  Sundays  and  other  holy-days  seemed  to  extend  in  favor 
of  the  making  a  table  of  Second  Lessons  also ;  which  is  accordingly  done. 
Those  for  the  morning  are  intended  to  suit  the  several  seasons ;  and 
yet  without  a  repetition  of  the  portions  of  the  Gospel  included  in  the 
Communion  Service ;  and  those  for  the  evening  are  selected  in  the 
order  of  the  sacred  Books.  Besides  this,  the  Table  of  First  Lessons  has 
been  reviewed  ;  a  few  new  chapters  are  introduced  from  the  supposition 
of  their  being  more  edifying  than  the  old  ;  and  transpositions  have 
been  made  where  they  seemed  to  suit  the  lessons  more  to  the  season  of 
the  year.  It  has  been  thought  that  a  calendar  is  unnecessary ;  and  that 
the  managing  the  lessons  for  the  ordinary  days  agreeably  to  the  civil 
year  is  not  so  expedient  as  the  making  them  correspond,  like  the  others, 
with  the  ecclesiastical  year.  Accordingly  the  minister  is  left  to  his  dis- 
cretion in  the  choice  of  lessons  for  the  intermediate  days,  with  the 
expectation  that  such  will  be  taken  as  the  most  nearly  suit  those  selected 
for  the  Sundays  and  other  holy-days. 

The  Offices  for  Baptism  have  undergone  some  change.  The  requiring 
other  godfathers  and  godmothers  than  the  parents  is  dispensed  with,  if 
the  same  be  desired ;  and  thus  regard  is  still  maintained  for  an  ancient 
and  useful  institution ;  and  yet  the  complaint  avoided,  that  in  some 
cases,  especially  among  the  poor,  it  is  difficult  to  provide  sponsors, 
unless  such  as  will  most  probably  neglect  the  duties  of  that  relation,  to 
the  great  hazard  of  their  own  souls.  The  sponsors,  instead  of  answer- 
ing in  the  name  and  person  of  the  infant,  now  answer  for  their  own 
discharge  of  the  obligation  they  have  come  under.  The  sign  of  the 
cross  is  retained,  from  a  conviction  of  its  having  been  used  in  the 
earliest  ages  of  the  Church  as  expressive  of  the  being  devoted  to  the 
service  of  Christ,  who  for  our  sake,  "  endured  the  cross,  despising  the 
shame."  Nevertheless  in  tenderness  to  those  who  may  entertain  con- 
scientious scruples  concerning  the  use  of  this  venerable  rite,  the  minister 
is  to  dispense  with  it,  when  desired,  by  the  sponsors. 


I/85]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  1$/ 

The  alterations  made  in  the  Catechism  and  the  Service  for  Confirma- 
tion are  such  as  became  necessary  to  make  those  offices  correspond  with 
the  Forms  for  Baptism;  except  the  change  of  a  few  words  of  the  service 
which  was  thought  to  be  not  sufficiently  clear,  in  that  part  of  the  Cate- 
chism which  relates  to  the  Holy  Communion. 

It  was  thought  that  the  Office  for  Matrimony  could  bear  considerable 
shortening;  which  is  accordingly  done. 

The  Visitation  of  the  Sick  is  nearly  as  in  the  old  service.  But  a  few 
verses  in  the  Psalm  have  been  omitted,  as  not  appearing  altogether 
applicable  to  the  occasion  ;  and  the  absolution  has  given  way  to  what 
was  conceived  to  be  the  more  scriptural  form  used  in  the  Communion 
Service. 

In  the  Burial  Service  it  was  thought  proper  to  omit  some  inapplicable 
verses  in  the  Psalms ;  such  expressions  as  seem  to  pronounce  too  posi- 
tively concerning  the  state  of  the  deceased ;  and  the  thanking  of  God 
for  an  event  in  which  resignation  only  is  required. 

None  of  the  Form  for  "the  Churching  of  AVomen "  is  retained, 
except  the  Thanksgiving  Prayer,  which  is  placed  among  the  other  occa- 
sional Thanksgivings :  it  being  supposed'  that  many  parts  of  the  daily 
service  are  equally  applicable  to  that  occasion  with  what  is  omitted. 

Such  parts  of  the  Commination  Service,  as  were  thought  calculated  to 
produce  Christian  penitence,  are  inserted  after  the  Collect  for  Ash- 
Wednesday;  except  the  Psalm,  which  is  appointed  to  be  read  for  the 
day. 

The  Forms  to  be  used  at  Sea  have  undergone  very  little  change,  other 
than  what  arose  from  adapting  it  to  the  Revolution. 

The  case  of  such  unhappy  persons  as  have  forfeited  their  lives  to  the 
laws  of  their  country  claimed  the  consideration  of  this  Church  :  which 
has  therefore  adopted  into  her  Liturgy  the  Form  for  Visitation  of  Prison- 
ers under  Sentence  of  Death — passed  by  the  Convocation  and  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland. 

The  Articles  of  Religion  have  been  reduced  in  number.  Yet  it  is 
humbly  conceived,  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England  are 
preserved  in  their  full  extent ;  as  being  thought  agreeable  to  the  Gospel. 
It  is  therefore  foreign  to  the  intention  of  this  Church  to  alter  anything 
which  appeared  to  be  essential  to  the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles;  nevertheless,  some  variation  has  been  made  in  the 
expression  ;  and  such  parts  omitted  as  were  evidently  adapted  either  to 
the  time  when  the  Articles  were  composed,  or  to  the  political  constitu- 
tion of  England. 

From  the  Psalms  translated  in  metre  by  N.  Brady  amd  N.  Tate,  there 
have  been  selected  only  such  a  number  as  were  thought  to  make  a 
sufficient  variety  for  divine  worship,  and  the  parts  selected  are  arranged 
under  heads,  agreeing  with  the  subjects  of  them  respectively:   which  it 


158  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [I/85 

was  thought  would  tend  to  the  judicious  use  of  them  both  in  public  and 
in  private. 

This  Church,  therefore,  having  gone  through  the  important  work  of 
accommodating  her  Service  to  her  new  situation ;  it  is  hoped  that  the 
divine  blessing  will  attend  the  same  to  the  promoting  of  Piety  in  her 
children,  and  to  the  influencing  them  to  live  in  peace  and  love  with  all 
Mankind. 

The  above  "hints"  are  endorsed  in  the  handwriting  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  as  follows : 

Proposed  by  Dr.  White. 

N.  B. — The  Preface  has  been  composed  upon  another  plan  by  W.  S., 
who  has  made  use  of  some  of  the  within  "  hints." 

Dr.  Smith's  Preface  as  finally  made,  after  a  few  suggestions  as 
to  small  matters  from  Dr.  White,*  came  forth  in  the  following 
form.  Dr.  White,  it  is  agreeable  to  know,  liked  this  Preface  both 
in  plan  and  execution.  He  could  hardly  do  otherwise.  It  is 
undoubtedly  a  grand  document,  in  point,  alike,  of  strong  common 
sense,  of  argumentative  force,  of  the  presentation  of  authorities, 
and  of  literary  elegance  and  effect : 

The  Preface. 

It  is  a  most  invaluable  part  of  that  blessed  "  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
hath  made  us  free" — that,  in  his  worship,  different  forms  and  usages 
may  without  offence  be  allowed,  provided  the  substance  of  the  faith  be 
kept  entire;  and  that,  in  every  church,  what  cannot  be  clearly  deter- 
mined to  belong  to  doctrine  must  be  referred  to  discipiitie;  and,  there- 
fore, by  common  consent  and  authority  may  be  altered,  abridged,  en- 
larged, amended,  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  as  may  seem  most  con- 
venient for  the  edification  of  the  people,  "according  to  the  various 
exigencies  of  times  and  occasions." 

The  Church  of  England,  to  which  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  these  States  is  indebted,  under  God,  for  her  first  foundation  and  a 
long  continuance  of  nursing  care  and  protection,  hath  in  the  preface 
of  her  book  of  common  prayer  laid  it  down  as  a  rule,  that — "  The  par- 
ticular forms  of  divine  worship,  and  the  rites  and  ceremonies  appointed 
to  be  used  therein,  being  things  in  their  own  nature  indifferent  and 
alterable,  and  so  acknowledged,  it  is  but  reasonable  that,  upon  weighty 
and  important  considerations,  according  to  the  various  exigencies  of 
times  and  occasions,  such  changes  and  alterations  should  be  made  there- 
in, as  to  those  who  are  in  place  of  authority  should,  from  time  to  time, 
seem  either  necessary  or  expedient." 


*See  infra,  page  179  and  181. 


I/85]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 59 

This  is  not  only  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  other 
Protestant  Churches,  but  likewise  of  the  Church  of  Rome;  which  hath 
declared,  by  the  Council  of  Trent* — "That  the  Church  always  had  a 
power  of  making  such  constitutions  and  alterations  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  Sacraments,  provided  their  substance  be  preserved  entire,  as, 
with  regard  to  the  variety  of  circumstances  and  places,  she  should  judge 
to  be  most  expedient  for  the  salvation  of  the  receivers,  or  the  veneration 
of  the  Sacraments  themselves." 

The  Church  of  England  has,  not  only  in  her  preface,  but  likewise  in 
her  articlesf  and  homilies, \  declared  the  necessity  and  expediency  of 
occasional  alterations  and  amendments  in  her  forms  of  public  worship ; 
and  we  find  accordingly,  that  seeking  to  "  keep  the  happy  mean  between 
too  much  stiffness  in  refusing  and  too  much  easiness  in  admitting  varia- 
tions in  things  once  advisedly  established,  she  hath,  in  the  reign  of 
several  §  princes,  since  the  first  compiling  of  her  liturgy  in  the  time  of 
Edward  the  Vlth,  upon  just  and  weighty  considerations  her  thereunto 
moving,  yielded  to  make  such  alterations  in  some  particulars,  as  in 
their  respective  times  were  thought  convenient :  yet  so  as  the  main 
body  and  essential  parts  of  the  same  (as  well  in  the  chiefest  materials, 
as  in  the  frame  and  order  thereof)  have  still  been  continued  firm  and 
unshaken." 

"  Her  general  aim  in  these  different  reviews  and  alterations  hath  been 
(as  she  further  declares  in  her  said  preface)  to  do  that  which,  according 
to  her  best  understanding,  might  most  tend  to  the  preservation  of  peace 
and  unity  in  the  Church ;  the  procuring  of  reverence,  and  the  exciting 
of  piety  and  devotion  in  the  worship  of  God  ;  and  (finally)  the  cutting 

*  Declarat  (sancta  synodus)  hanc  potestatem  perpetuo  in  ecclesia  fuisse;  ut  in  sacra- 
mentorum  dispensatione,  salva  illorum  substantia,  ea  statueret  vel  mutaret  qux  suscip- 
ientium  saluti,  seu  ipsorum  sacramentorum  venerationi,  pro  reruni,  temporum  et  loco- 
rum  varietate,  magis  expedire  judicaverit. — Sess.  21,  cap.  2,  Concil.  Trident.  And 
agreeably  to  this,  their  Breviary  and  Missal  have  been  frequently  reviewed;  the 
Breviary  heretofore  three  times  in  the  short  space  of  sixteen  years  only. 

■f  "  It  is  not  necessary  that  traditions  and  ceremonies  be  in  all  places  one,  or  utterly 
alike,  for  at  all  times  they  have  been  divers,  and  may  be  changed  according  to  the 
diversity  of  countries,  times  and  manners;  so  that  nothing  be  ordained  against  God's 
word;  [And  therefore]  every  particular  or  national  Church  hath  authority  to  ordain, 
change  and  abolish  ceremonies  or  rites  of  the  Church,  ordained  only  by  man's  author- 
ity ;  so  that  all  things  be  done  to  edifying." — Art.  34. 

\  "  God's  Church  ought  not,  neither  can  it  be  so  tied  to  any  orders  now  made,  or 
hereafter  to  be  made  and  devised,  by  the  authority  of  man,  but  that  it  may,  for  just 
causes,  alter,  change  or  mitigate — yea  recede  wholly  from,  and  also  break  them,"  etc. 
And  again — "The  Church  is  not  bound  to  observe  any  order,  law  or  decree  made  by 
man  to  prescribe  a  form  of  religion ;  but  hath  full  power  and  authority  from  God  to 
change  and  alter  the  same,  when  need  shall  require." — Homily  on  Fasting,  Part  I. 

$  The  liturgy,  in  sundry  particulars,  hath  been  reviewed,  altered  and  amended  about 
eight  different  times,  from  its  first  publication,  according  to  act  of  parliament  in  1594; 
and  its  last  review  was  in  1661,  as  it  now  stands,  according  to  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 


l6o  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1785 

off  occasion,  from  them  that  seek  occasion,  of  cavil  or  quarrel  against  her 
liturgy."  And  the  necessity  and  expediency  of  the  several  variations 
made  from  time  to  time  (whether  by  alteration,  addition,  or  otherwise) 
she  states  chiefly  under  the  following  heads,  viz. : 

1st.  For  the  better  direction  of  them  that  are  to  officiate  in  any  part 
of  divine  service ;  which  is  chiefly  done  in  the  Calendars  and  Rubrics. 

2d.  For  the  more  proper  expressing  of  some  words  or  phrases  of  an- 
cient usage  in  terms  more  suitable  to  the  language  of  the  present  times; 
and  the  clearer  explanation  of  some  other  words  and  phrases  that  were 
of  a  doubtful  signification,  or  otherwise  liable  to  misconstruction  ;  or 

3d.  For  a  more  perfect  rendering  (or  translation)  of  such  portions  of 
holy  Scripture  as  are  inserted  into  the  liturgy  (and  made  a  part  of  the 
daily  service) ;  with  the  addition  of  some  Offices,  Prayers  and  Thanks- 
givings, fitted  to  special  occasions. 

If,  therefore,  from  the  reasons  above  set  forth  (namely  the  change 
of  times  and  circumstances,  and  the  fluctuation  of  our  language  itself), 
so  many  different  reviews,  alterations  and  amendments,  were  found 
necessary  in  the  first  hundred  and  twelve  years  after  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  it  could  not  be  expected,  but  (the  same  causes  and  reasons  still 
operating)  some  subsequent  reviews,  alterations  and  amendments  would 
not  only  be  found  necessary,  but  be  earnestly  desired  by  many  true 
members  of  the  Church,  in  the  course  of  at  least  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  more.  And  we  accordingly  find  that  in  less  than  thirty 
years  after  the  last  review  in  1661  (viz.,  on  the  13th  of  September, 
1689),  a  commission  for  a  further  review  of  the  liturgy  and  canons, 
etc.,  was  issued  out  to  a  number  of  bishops  and  other  divines;  "than 
whom  (it  hath  been  truly  acknowledged)  the  Church  of  England  was 
never,  at  any  one  time,  blessed  with  either  wiser  or  better,  since  it  was 
a  Church." 

The  chief  matters  proposed  for  a  review  at  that  time,  and  which  have 
been  since  repeatedly  proposed  and  stated  under  the  decent  and  modest 
form  of  queries,  are  included  under  the  following  heads : 

1st.  Whether  the  public  service  on  Sunday  mornings  be  not  of  too 
great  length,  and  tends  rather  to  diminish  than  increase  devotion, 
especially  among  the  lukewarm  and  negligent  ? 

2d.  Whether  it  might  not  be  conveniently  contracted,  by  omitting 
all  unnecessary  repetitions  of  the  same  prayers  or  subject-matter;  and 
whether  a  better  adjustment  of  the  necessary  parts  of  the  three  different 
services,  usually  read  every  Sunday  morning  in  the  Church,  would  not 
render  the  whole  frame  of  the  service  more  uniform,  animated  and 
complete  ? 

3d.  Whether  the  old  and  new  translations  of  the  Psalms  ought  not  to 
be  compared,  in  order  to  render  both  more  agreeable  to  each  other  and 
to  their  divine  original ;  so  as  to  have  but  one  translation,  and  that  as 
complete  as  possible? 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  l6l 

4th.  Whether  all  the  Psalms  of  David  are  applicable  to  the  state  and 
condition  of  Christian  societies,  and  ought  to  be  read  promiscuously  as 
they  now  are  ;  and  whether  some  other  method  of  reading  them  might 
not  be  appointed,  including  a  choice  of  psalms  and  hymns,  as  well  for 
ordinary  use,  as  for  the  festivals  and  fasts,  and  other  special  occasions 
of  public  worship? 

5th.  Whether  the  subject-matter  of  our  psalmody  or  singing  psalms 
should  not  be  extended  beyond  those  of  David,  which  include  but  a  few 
heads  of  Christian  worship,  and  whether  much  excellent  matter  might 
not  be  taken  from  the  New  Testament,  as  well  as  some  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament,  especially  the  Prophets  ;  so  as  to  introduce  a  greater  variety 
of  anthems  and  hymns,  suited  to  the  different  festivals  and  other  occa- 
sions of  daily  worship,  private  as  well  as  public? 

6th.  Whether,  in  particular,  a  psalm  or  anthem  should  not  be  adapted 
to,  and  sung  at,  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist,  as  was  the  primitive 
practice,  and  that  recommended  in  our  first  Liturgy? 

7th.  Whether  all  the  lessons  which  are  appointed  to  be  read  in  the 
ordinary  course  are  well  chosen  ;  and  whether  many  of  them  may  not 
be  subject  to  one  or  more  of  the  following  objections,  viz.:  1.  Either 
inexpedient  to  be  read  in  mixt  assemblies  :  or,  2.  Containing  genealo- 
gies and  passages  either  obscure,  or  of  little  benefit  to  be  read  in 
our  congregations ;  or,  3.  Improperly  divided  ;  sometimes  abrupt  and 
unconnected  in  their  beginning,  as  having  respect  to  something  that 
hath  gone  before ;  and  sometimes  either  too  short  or  too  long,  and 
apocryphal  lessons  included  among  the  number  ? 

8th.  Whether  our  epistles  and  gospels  are  all  of  them  well  selected  ; 
and  whether  after  so  many  other  portions  of  Scripture  they  are  neces- 
sary, especially  unless  the  first  design  of  inserting  them,  viz.  :  as  intro- 
ductory to  the  Communion,  should  be  more  regarded,  and  the  Com- 
munion be  again  made  a  daily  part  of  the  service  of  the  Church? 

9th.  Whether  our  collects,  which  in  the  main  are  excellent,  are 
always  suited  to  the  epistles  and  gospels  ;  and  whether  too  many  of 
them  are  not  of  one  sort,  consisting  of  the  same  kind  of  substance? 
And  whether  there  is  any  occasion  of  using  the  collect  for  the  day  twice 
in  the  same  service? 

10th.  Whether  the  Athanasian  creed  may  not,  consistently  with 
piety,  faith  and  charity,  be  either  wholly  omitted,  or  left  indifferent  in 
itself? 

nth.  Whether  our  catechism  may  not  require  illustration  in  some 
points  and  enlargement  in  others ;  so  that  it  may  not  only  be  rendered 
fit  for  children,  but  a  help  to  those  who  become  candidates  for  confir- 
mation? And  whether  all  the  other  offices,  viz.  :  the  litany,  the  com- 
munion office,  the  offices  of  confirmation,  matrimony,  visitation  of  the 
sick,  churching  of  women,  and  more  especially  those  of  baptism,,  burial, 
11 


1 62  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  \_l7^ 

and  communion,  do  not  call  for  a  review  and  amendment  in  sundry 
particulars? 

1 2th.  Whether  the  calendars  and  rubrics  do  not  demand  a  review 
and  better  adjustment ;  and  whether  any  words  and  phrases  in  our 
common  prayer,  which  are  now  less  intelligible  or  common,  or  any  way 
changed  in  their  present  acceptation  from  their  original  sense,  should 
be  retained?  And  whether  others  should  not  be  substituted  which  are 
more  modern,  intelligible,  and  less  liable  to  any  misapprehension  or 
misconstruction  ? 

13th.  Whether  the  Articles  of  Religion  may  not  deserve  a  review; 
and  the  subscription  to  them  and  the  common  prayer  be  contrived  after 
some  other  manner,  less  exceptionable  than  at  present  ? 

These  are  the  principal  matters  which  have  been  long  held  up  for  public 
consideration,  as  still  requiring  a  review  in  the  book  of  common  prayer; 
and  although  in  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  there  be  nothing  in  it 
"contrary  to  the  word  of  God,  or  to  sound  doctrine,  or  which  a  godly 
man  may  not  submit  unto,  or  which  is  not  fairly  defensible,  if  allowed 
such  just  and  favorable  construction  as  in  common  equity  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  all  human  compositions;"  yet,  upon  the  principles  already 
laid  down,  (namely,  "the  promoting  of  peace  and  unity  in  the  church, 
the  exciting  of  piety  and  devoti  n,  and  the  removing,  as  far  as  possible, 
of  all  occasion  of  cavil  or  quarrel  against  the  liturgy,")  the  pious  and 
excellent  divines  who  were  commissioned  in  1689,  proceeded  to  the 
execution  of  the  great  work  assigned  them.  They  had  before  them  ail 
the  exceptions  which  had,  since  the  act  of  uniformity,  been  at  any  time 
made  against  any  parts  of  the  church  service,  which  are  chiefly  set  forth 
in  the  foregoing  queries.  They  had  likewise  many  propositions  and 
advices,  which  had  been  offered  at  several  times  by  some  of  the  most 
eminent  bishops  and  divines  upon  the  different  heads  in  question. 
Matters  were  well  considered,  freely  and  calmly  debated ;  and  all  was 
digested  into  one  entire*  correction  of  everything  that  seemed  liable  to 

*  It  will,  without  doubt,  be  agreeable  to  the  members  of  our  Church,  and  those  who 
esteem  our  liturgy  and  public  service,  to  have  at  least  a  general  account  of  the  altera- 
tions and  amendments  which  were  desired  and  designed  by  such  great  and  good  men 
as  Archbishop  Tillotson  and  others,  whose  names  are  in  the  following  account  taken 
from  Bishop  Burnet,  who  was  also  in  the  commission,  and  from  Dr.  Nichols : 

"They  began  with  reviewing  the  liturgy;  and  first  they  examined  the  calendar;  in 
which,  in  the  room  of  the  apocryphal  lessons,  they  ordered  certain  chapters  of  canon- 
ical Scripture  to  be  read,  that  were  more  for  the  people's  edification.  The  Athanasian 
creed  being  disliked  by  many  persons  on  account  of  the  damnatory  clause,  it  was  left 
at  the  minister's  choice  to  use  or  change  it  for  the  Apostles'  creed.  New  collects  were 
drawn  up  more  agreeable  to  the  epistles  and  gospels,  for  the  whole  course  of  the  year, 
and  with  a  force  and  beauty  of  expression  capable  of  affecting  and  raising  the  mind  in 
the  strongest  manner.  The  first  draught  was  by  Dr.  Patrick,  who  was  esteemed  to 
have  a  peculiar  talent  for  composing  prayers.  Dr.  Burnet  added  to  them  yet  further 
force  and  spirit.     Dr.  Stillingfleet  then  examined  every  word  in  them  with  the  exact- 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  163 

any  just  objection.  But  this  great  and  gocd  work  miscarried  at  that 
time,  and  the  civil  authority  in  Great  Britain  hath  not  bince  thought  it 
proper  to  revive  it  by  any  new  commission. 

But  when,  in  the  course  of  divine  providence,  these  American  States 
became  independent  with  respect  to  civil  government,  their  ecclesiastical 
independence  was  necessarily  included;  and  the  different  religious  de- 
nominations of  Christians  in  these  States  were  left  at  full  and  equal 
liberty  to  model  and  organize  their  respective  churches  and  forms  of 
worship  and  discipline,  in  such  manner  as  they  might  judge  most  con- 
venient for  their  future  prosperity,  consistently  with  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  their  country. 

The  attention  of  this  Church  was,  in  the  first  place,  drawn  to  those 
alterations  in  the  liturgy  which  became  necessary  in  the  prayers  for  our 
civil  rulers,  in  consequence  of  the  revolution  ;  and  the  principal  care 
herein  was  to  make  them  conformable  to  what  ought  to  be  the  proper 
end  of  all  such  prayers,  namely,  that  "rulers  may  have  grace,  wisdom 
and  understanding  to  execute  justice  and  to  maintain  truth;  and  that 
the  people  may  lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives,  in  all  godliness  and 
honesty." 

But  while  these  alterations  were  in  review  before  the  late  Convention, 
they  could  not  but,  with  gratitude  to  God,  embrace  the  happy  occasion 
which  was  offered  to  them  (uninfluenced  and  unrestrained  by  any 
worldly  authority  whatsoever)  to  take  a  further  review  of  the  public  ser- 
vice, and  to  propose  to  the  Church  at  large  such  other  alterations  and 
amendments  therein  as  might  be  deemed  expedient ;  whether  consisting 
of  those  which  have  been  heretofore  so  long  desired  by  many,  or  those 
which  the  late  change  of  our  circumstances  might  require,  in  our  re- 
ligious as  well  as  civil  capacity. 

By  comparing  the  following  book,  as  now  offered  to  the  Church,  with 

est  judgment.  Dr.  Tillotson  gave  them  the  last  hand,  by  the  free  and  masterly  touches 
of  his  flowing  eloquence.  Dr.  Kidder,  who  was  well  versed  in  the  oriental  languages, 
made  a  new  translation  of  the  Psalms,  more  conformable  to  the  original.  Dr.  Tenni- 
son,  having  collected  the  words  and  expressions  throughout  the  liturgy,  which  had 
been  excepted  against,  proposed  others  in  their  room,  which  were  more  clear  and  plain. 
Other  things  were  likewise  proposed,  as  that  the  cross  in  baptism  might  be  either  used 
or  omitted  at  the  choice  of  the  parents;  and  it  is  further  added  from  other  certain  ac- 
counts, "  that  if  any  refused  or  scrupled  to  receive  the  Lord's  Supper  kneeling,  it  may 
be  administered  to  them  in  their  pews;  that  a  rubric  be  made,  declaring  the  intention 
of  the  Lent  fasts  to  consist  only  in  extraordinary  acts  of  devotion,  not  in  distinction  of 
meats;  that  the  absolution  may  be  read  by  a  deacon;  the  word  priest  to  be  changed 
into  minister ;  the  Gloria  Patri  not  to  be  repeated  at  the  end  of  every  psalm,  but  of  all 
appointed  for  morning  and  evening;  that  the  words  in  the  Te  Deum,  Thine  honorable, 
true  and  only  Son,  be  changed  into  Thine  only  begotten  Son;  that  the  Benedicite  be 
changed  into  the  128th  Psalm,  and  other  psalms  appointed  for  the  Benedictus  and  Nunc 
Dimitlis ;  that  if  any  desire  to  have  godfathers  and  godmothers  omitted,  their  children 
may  be  presented  in  their  own  names,"  etc. 


I64  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [iJ^S 

this  preface  and  the  notes  annexed,  it  will  appear  that  most  of  the 
amendments  or  alterations,  which  had  the  sanction  of  the  great  divines 
of  1689,  have  been  adopted,  with  such  others  as  are  thought  reasonable 
and  expedient. 

The  service  is  arranged  so  as  to  stand  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the 
order  in  which  it  is  to  be  read.  A  selection  is  made  both  of  the  reading 
and  singing  psalms,  commonly  so  called.  Wherever  the  Bible-transla- 
tion of  the  former  appeared  preferable  to  the  old  translation,  it  hath 
been  adopted  ;  and  in  consequence  of  the  new  selection,  a  new  division 
and  considerable  abridgment  of  the  daily  portions  to  be'  read  became 
necessary;  and  as  the  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,"  etc.,  is  one  said 
or  sung  before  the  reading  of  the  psalms  in  Morning  and  Evening 
prayer,  it  was  conceived  that,  in  order  to  avoid  repetition,  the  solemnity 
would  be  increased  by  allowing  the  minister  to  conclude  the  portion  of 
the  psalms  which  is  at  any  time  read,  with  that  excellent  doxology 
somewhat  shortened,  "  Glory  to  God  on  high,"  etc.,  especially  when  it 
can  be  properly  sung.  With  respect  to  the  psalmody  or  singing  psalms, 
for  the  greater  ease  of  choosing  such  as  are  suited  to  particular  subjects 
aid  occasions,  they  are  disposed  under  the  several  metres  and  the  few 
general  heads  to  which  they  can  be  referred ;  and  a  collection  of  hymns 
are  added,  upon  those  evangelical  subjects  and  other  heads  of  Christian 
worship,  to  which  the  Psalms  of  David  are  less  adapted,  or  do  not 
generally  extend. 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  enumerate  particularly  all  the  different  alter- 
ations and  amendments  which  are  proposed.  They  will  readily  appear, 
and  it  is  hoped  the  reason  of  them  also,  upon  a  comparison  of  this  with 
the  former  book.  The  calendar  and  rubrics  have  been  altered  where  it 
appeared  necessary,  and  the  same  reasons,  which  occasioned  a  table  of 
first  lessons  for  Sundays  and  other  holy-days,  seemed  to  require  the 
making  of  a  table  of  second  lessons  also,  which  is  accordingly  done. 
Those  for  the  morning  are  intended  to  suit  the  several  seasons,  without 
any  material  repetition  of  the  epistles  and  gospels  for  the  same  seasons ; 
and  those  for  the  evening  are  selected  in  the  order  of  the  sacred  Books. 
Besides  this,  the  table  of  first  lessons  has  been  reviewed  ;  and  some  new 
chapters  are  introduced  on  the  supposition  of  their  being  more  edifying; 
and  some  transpositions  of  lessons  have  been  made,  the  better  to  suit 
the  seasons. 

And  whereas  it  hath  been  the  practice  of  the  Church  of  England  to 
set  apart  certain  days  of  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  signal  mer- 
cies vouchsafed  to  that  Church  and  nation,  it  hath  here  also  been  con- 
sidered as  conducive  to  godliness  that  there  should  be  two  annual 
solemn  days  of  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  set  apart, 
viz.  :  the  fourth  day  of  July,  commemorative  of  the  blessings  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty  in  the  land  wherein  we  live  ;  and  the  first  Thurs- 


1/86]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  lr»5 

day  of  November  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth  :  in  order  that  we  may  be 
thereby  stirred  up  to  a  more  particular  remembrance  of  the  signal  mer- 
cies of  God  towards  us  ;  the  neglect  of  which  might  otherwise  be  the 
occasion  of  licentiousness,  civil  miseries  and  punishments. 

The  case  of  such  unhappy  persons  as  may  be  imprisoned  for  debt  or 
crimes  claimed  the  attention  of  this  Church  ;  which  hath  accordingly 
adopted  into  her  liturgy  the  form  for  the  visitation  of  prisoners  in  use 
in  the  Church  of  Ireland. 

In  the  creed  commonly  called  the  Apostles'  creed,  one  clause*  is 
omitted,  as  being  of  uncertain  meaning  ;  and  the  Articles  of  Religion 
have  been  reduced  in  number ;  yet  it  is  humbly  conceived  that  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England  are  preserved  entire,  as  being  judged 
perfectly  agreeable  to  the  gospel. 

It  is  far  from  the  intention  of  this  Church  to  depart  from  the  Church 
of  England  any  farther  than  local  circumstances  require,  or  to  deviate 
in  any  thing  essential  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles; 
although  the  number  of  them  be  abridged  by  some  variations  in  the 
mode  of  expression,  and  the  omission  of  such  articles  as  were  more 
evidently  adapted  to  the  times  when  they  were  first  framed  and  to  the 
political  constitution  of  England. 

And  now,  this  important  work  being  brought  to  a  conclusion,  it  is 
hoped  the  whole  will  be  received  and  examined,  by  every  true  member 
of  our  Church  and  every  sincere  Christian,  with  a  meek,  candid  and 
charitable  frame  of  mind,  without  prejudice  or  prepossessions  ;  seriously 
considering  what  Christianity  is,  and  what  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  are; 
and  earnestly  beseeching  Almighty  God  to  accompany  with  his  blessing 
every  endeavor  for  promulgating  them  to  mankind-  in  the  clearest, 
plainest,  most  affecting  and  majestic  manner,  for  the  sake  of  Jesus 
Christ,  our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour. 

We  now  resume  the  correspondence. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  White  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  January  4,  17S6. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  send  you  the  sheets  as  far  as  finished,  and  have  corret  ted 
the  proofs  as  far  as  to  the  beginning  of  the  Burial  Service. 

I  have  just  now  delivered  to  Mr.  Hall  the  offices  of  the  Fourth  of  July 
and  for  November;  as  they  will  be  gone  on  with   to-morrow.      I   kept 

*  The  clause  meant  is  "Christ's  descent  into  hell,"  which,  as  Bishop  Burnett, 
Bishop  Pearson,  and  other  writers  inform  us,  is  found  in  no  creed,  nor  mentioned  by 
any  writer,  until  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century;  and  in  the  first  creeds  that 
have  this  clause  or  article,  that  of  Christ's  burial  not  being  mentioned  in  them,  it  fol- 
lows that  they  understood  the  descent  into  hell  only  of  his  burial  or  descent  into  the 
grave,  as  the  word  is  otherwise  translated  in  the  Bible.  The  Nicene  creed  hath  only 
the  burial,  and  the  Athanasian  only-ahe  descent  into  hell. 


1 66  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

them  to  the  last  with  the  hope  of  hearing  from  you,  but  there  was  no 
post  this  week. 

In  preparing  said  offices  for  the  press,  it  occurred  to  me  that  their 
wanting  gospels  and  epistles  made  them  not  harmonize  with  the  rest 
of  our  service.  Our  brethren  here  were  unanimous  in  advising  me  to 
add  them ;  and  I  was  the  more  encouraged  by  Dr.  Magaw's  saying  that 
it  was  not  thought  of  in  the  committee.  The  passages  chosen  are 
Philippians  iv.  4-8,  with  St.  John  viii.  31-37  ;  and  St.  James  i.  16, 
with  St.  Matthew  v.  43.  The  lessons,  taken  by  the  same  advice  for  the 
first  Thursday  in  November,  are  Deuteronomy  xxviii.  to  verse  15,  and 
St.  Matthew  vii.  7. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  have  been  obliged  to  do  these  things  without  wait- 
ing for  your  approbation  ;  but  I  hope  they  will  still  merit  it. 

The  post  is  just  going,  so  that  I  can  only  write  myself, 

Yours,  etc.,  W.  White. 

Dr.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  January  17,  17S6. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  have  lost  no  time  in  making  provision  for  inserting  a 
few  tunes  in  the  prayer  book.  We  have  selected  some  which  I  send  you 
the  names  of  on  an  enclosed  paper.  Mr.  Hopkinson*  is  beginning  to 
copy  them  for  the  engraver,  and  I  expect  they  will  be  done  with 
sufficient  speed. 

It  was  natural  for  me,  when  on  this  subject  with  a  gentleman  of  Mr. 
Hopkinson's  taste,  to  communicate  to  him  our  arrangement  respect- 
ing the  psalms.  He  objected,  as  indeed  has  almost  every  one  to  whom 
I  have  mentioned  it,  to  the  running  the  psalms  into  one  another.  The 
issue  of  the  conference  with  Mr.  Hopkinson  was  his  suggesting  a  plan 
of  which  I  give  you  a  sketch  on  an  enclosed  paper,  and  which  I  think 
on  the  whole  will  be  the  simplest  and  most  elegant.  Unless  you  disap- 
prove, I  will  execute  it  on  this  plan,  although  I  shall  have  lost  some 
labor  of  transcribing;  in  doing  of  which,  however,  I  became  more  and 
more  dissatisfied  with  the  running  of  psalms  into  one  another;  and 
indeed  in  this  way,  I  find  that  many  fine  passages  must  be  lost,  or  else 
such  a  repetition  made  as  in  the  same  psalm  would  be  improper  and 
disgusting.     I  expect  your  draft  of  a  preface  by  next  post  and  am 

Yours,  etc.,  Wm.  White. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

P.  S. — On  Mr.  Hopkinson's  plan,  the  insertion  of  the  term  chapter 

will  be  unnecessary. 

*  The  Hon.  Francis  Hopkinson,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  and  appointed  by  Washington 
judge  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey. 
See  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  Vol.  II.,  page  314. 


1 786]  rev.  will  jam  smith,  d.  d.  167 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Sunday  night  or  Monday  morning,  January  23,  17S6. 
I  received  your  last  letter  of  17th  of  January,  and  observe  what  you 
say  concerning   the   objections  which   have  occurred  as  to  running  our 

collection  or  selection  of  singing  psalms  into  one  another.  You  know 
this  arrangement  was  proposed  for  the  convenience  of  clerks  and  of  the 
people  for  finding  any  proposed  sum.  We  could  not  then  think  of  any 
better  mode.  I  have  no  attachment  to  any  particular  arrangement  that 
appears  best.  But  I  could  see  no  impropriety,  nor  can  yet  see  any  in 
making  one  chapter  or  psalm  of  all  those  different  parts  of  different 
psalms  which  are  selected  on  the  same  subject  and  in  the  psalm  metre  ; 
for  except  in  metre  1st,  and  in  psalms  of  praise,  etc.,  none  of  them 
would  be  very  long  in  this  way ;  and  I  know  not  how  you  can  make 
your  breaks  in  the  same  metre,  so  as  to  close  the  service  without  running 
many  of  them  into  one  another.  For  of  some  psalms  only  a  verse  or 
two  are  taken,  and  surely  so  small  a  portion  cannot  stand  by  itself. 
All  the  reading  psalms  for  a  morning  or  evening  service,  although  not 
arranged  under  different  heads  as  the  singing  psalms,  are  nevertheless 
run  into  one  another,  without  inconvenience.  On  the  contrary  it 
appears  a  beauty.  The  same  has  been  done  in  choosing  psalms  for 
particular  services  even  by  our  Mother  Church. 

But  I  have  no  objection  to  the  method  now  proposed.  As  far  as  I 
can  understand  it  from  your  short  scrip,  it  was  what  we  first  proposed, 
although  some  difficulties  then  occurred.  Mr.  Hopkinson's  judgment 
will  always  have  great  weight  with  me,  especially  on  a  subject  of  elegance 
and  taste.  I  am  happy  that  he  has  agreed  to  devote  a  few  hours  to  the 
psalmodv.  Under  his  hand  it  will  become  a  most  acceptable  addition 
to  the  Prayer  Book,  and  with  the  hymns  to  be  annexed  will  recommend 
the  purchase  of  it  to  many,  and  I  hope  greatly  increase  their  love  both 
of  public  and  private  devotion. 

With  the  assistance  of  our  organist  Mr.  Limburner,  our  clerk,  and 
some  other  gentlemen  of  this  town,  I  have  examined  the  tunes  which 
are  to  be  engraved  and  we  generally  approve  of  them  ;  except  Canter- 
bury, which  is  too  flat  and  inanimate.  St.  Anne's,  though  good,  is  too 
difficult  for  singers  in  general.  These  two  might  be  exchanged  for  some 
more  popular  tunes,  which  you  have  omitted,  such  as  Brunswick  and 

•  Stroud  tunes.  We  also  wish  to  have  in  the  collection  the  tune  .... 
and  St.  Peters  is  adapted  to  that  noble  hymn  ....  published  among 
the  collection  of  hymns — 

When  all  thy  mercies,  O  my  God,  etc. 

In  addition  to  the  tunes  which  are  proposed  in  your  list,  we  would 
offer  the  six  which  are  enclosed,  or  such  of  them  as  you  think  may  vary 
most  from  those  of  the  same  metre  which  you  retain.     I  should  wish  to 


1 68  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

see  the  first  proof-sheet  of  the  singing  psalms  before  it  is  worked  off. 
I  hope  Mr.  Hall  is  now  upon  it,  and  I  wish  not  to  delay  him. 

I  enclose  you  a  collection  of  hymns  to  follow  the  psalms,  and  which 
I  have  every  reason  to  believe  will  be  a  great  recommendation  of  our 
Prayer  Book  to  multitudes  of  our  most  serious  and  religious  members. 
The  Methodists  captivate  many  by  their  attention  to  Church  music,  and 
by  their  hymns  and  doxologies,  which,  when  rationally  and  devoutly 
introduced,  are  sublime  pans  of  public  and  private  worship.  I  have 
arranged  the  hymns  under  proper  heads,  have  chosen  the  best  I  could 
possibly  find,  and  have  spent  several  whole  nights  this  last  week  in 
copying  them  for  the  press,  abridging  them  where  it  could  be  done, 
and  correcting  some  of  them  in  a  few  places.  I  shall  be  happy  if  they 
meet  with  your  approbation  and  save  you  some  trouble  in  this  part,  as 
you  have  had  far  more  than  your  share  in  other  parts,  which  it  was  not 
in  my  power  to  ease  you  from,  on  account  of  my  many  late  calls  from 
home. 

The  number  of  hymns  is  more  than  I  expected  when  I  sat  down  to 
collect  them  ;  but  I  see  none  that  I  could  wish  to  leave  out.  On  the 
great  festivals  of  the  Church,  there  should  be  some  variety,  at  lear,t 
three  or  four,  and  of  different  metres,  to  complete  the  psalmody  of  the 
day. 

There  are  about  eight  hymns  yet  wanting,  which  I  hope  to  send  you 
next  post,  viz.  :  Hymns  or  Psalms  for  a  Public  Fast,  Meditational 
Hymns  on  Death,  Funeral  Hymns,  a  Hymn  on  the  Last  Judgment,  and 
a  Hymn  on  Immortality,  exhibiting  a  Glimpse  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Glory.  But  on  these  last  two  awful  and  exalted  subjects,  I  know  not 
where  to  choose.  They  far  transcend  the  power  of  our  common  class 
of  poets,  and  those  of  the  greatest  genius  have  left  them  unsung,  at  least 

in  that  kind  of  verse  which  is  proper  for  psalmody singing 

psalms,  that  those  portions  of  them of  hymns,  are  adapted 

to  particular  occasions  of  service,  thanksgiving,  etc.,  as  July  4th,  the 
first  Thursday  in  November,  etc.,  are  not  to  be  printed  in  their  place 
with  the  other  psalms,  which  are  selected  for  common  use.  Should  any 
of  them  be  chosen  on  any  other  occasion  than  those  to  which  they  are 
adapted  among  the  hymns,  the  clerk  and  congregation  can  turn  to  them 
where  they  stand.  The  hymns  and  psalmody  both  together  will  not  be 
near  so  long  as  the  former  psalmody  by  this  plan,  unless  your  new 
arrangement  should  lengthen  them  somewhat.  The  hymns  will  not 
require  two  half  sheets,  but  were  it  more,  they  will  pay  for  themselves  in 
the  sale  of  the  book  and  in  the  satisfaction  which  Christians  in  general 
will  derive.  Few  will  grudge  a  dollar  if,  with  the  addition  of  hymns 
and  tunes,  etc.,  we  think  that  should  be  the  price.  You  will  not  forget 
to  take  Addison's  23d  Ps.  from  Spectator  No.  441— his  nineteenth  from 
No.  465,  to  be  inserted  among  the  psalms  under  their  proper  metres. 


iyS6]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 69 

You  will  also  take  his  hymn,  on  Gratitude,  from  No.  453  to  be  inserted 
among  the  hymns  where  I  left  a  blank  in  copying,  for  want  of  time. 

As  1  do  not  know  in  what  order  you  have  arranged  the  metres  in 
publishing  the  singing  psalms,  I  must  beg  you  to  fill  up  the  blanks  I 
have  left  for  the  metres  of  the  Gloria  Patri,  so  as  to  answer  to  our 
select  psalms,  for  it  will  not  do  to  say  as  formerly — such  a  metre  as  Ps. 
25,  Ps.  123,  Ps.  148,  etc.,  as  our  psalms  and  metres  will  not  now 
answer  to  those  numbers,  but  to  metre  first,  second,  third,  etc.,  as  you 
may  place.  I  believe  I  said  before  (but  have  not  time  to  look  back) 
that  1  beg  to  see  the  first  proof-sheet  of  the  singing  psalms  before  it  goes 
to  the  press,  I  hope  by  next  post — I  will  try  by  that  time  to  send  you 
the  preface  or  address  nearly  upon  the  plan  you  have  sketched.  You 
speak  in  some  former  letter  of  collecting  for  the  feasts  and  fasts  some 
passages  of  psalms  to  supply  the  place  of  the  Venite  on  different  festi- 
vals.    Will  not  this  take  too  much  from  the  reading  psalms  of  those 

days?     Might of  Scripture  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament 

Easter  Day  the  substitute  for  the  Venite  is  wholly  so  .   .   . 

such  a  choice  as  this  may  interfere  with  the  lessons,  and  the  epistles  and 
gospels  of  the  day.  There  are  difficulties  both  ways,  I  leave  to  your 
own  judgment.  And  where  anything  we  had  before  (as  the  old  Venite 
a  little  altered)  will  do,  I  would  not  introduce,  for  the  present  at 
least,  any  very  great  alterations.  All  the  hymns,  etc.,  except  a  {ew 
from  Watts  and  Addison,  have  long  been  in  use  in  the  Church  in  the 
supplement  to  Tate  and  Brady's  Psalms  and  other  collections,  printed 
with  different  prayer  books,  by  religious  societies,  etc.  The  hymns, 
therefore,  are  only  a  more  copious  collection,  arranged  more  properly, 
of  such  as  have  been  long  in  use,  for  even  some  of  Watts's  are  not  new 
in  our  Church,  and  you  know  Dr.  Johnson  gives  them  a  high  name  in 
his  "  Lives  of  the  Poets."  I  wish  I  could  have  found  more  than  about 
six  or  eight  of  Watts's  to  introduce,  or  that  I  could  glean  from  him 
what  is  yet  wanted  on  the  last  Judgment  and  the  Kingdom  of  Glory. 
I  know  not  where  else  to  look.  If  you  know  of  any  on  those  subjects, 
I  wish  you  to  point  them  out.  I  have  got  two  or  three  funeral  hymns 
to  be  copied  out  in  my  next,  and  also  hymns  proper  for  the  service  of 
the  Church  at  Sea  and  after  Storms,  etc.,  etc. 

It  is  now  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  I  am  drowsy  and  half-blind — 
cannot  stay  to  read  what  I  have  written — believe  I  have  forgot  nothing 
material.  I  shall  be  ruined  if  the  packet  does  not  come  safe  to  your 
hand.  I  have  no  copy,  nor  even  a  list  or  table  of  the  hymns  which  I 
intend  should  be  added  at  the  end,  after  we  know  the  pages  to  which 
we  must  refer.  This  may  be  done  by  the  printer.  You  will  therefore 
not  fail  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  them  by  the  return  of  post.  If  I 
have  no  letter,  I  shall  conclude  you  have  not  received  them,  and  be 
very  unhappy  till  I  hear  that  you  have. 

Yours,  with  great  regard,  W.\i.  Smith. 


170  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [17S6 

The  hymns  must  be  printed  in  a  smaller  letter,  as  many  of  the  metres 
are  long.      Attend  well  to  the  note  at  bottom  of  page  38. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  January  25th,  1786. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  have  received  your  letter  with  the  enclosed  hymns  ;  of 
which  the  time  admits  my  saying  no  more  at  present,  but  that  I  make 
no  doubt  of  their  being  unexceptionable.  If  I  have  any  remarks  to 
make,  you  shall  have  them  in  my  next. 

As  you  have  no  objections  to  the  method  last  proposed  respecting  the 
psalms,  I  shall  do  whatever  on  a  re-examination  appears  to -our  friends 
here  the  best. 

I  am  afraid  your  proposals,  concerning  the  tunes,  are  too  late  to  be 
accomplished  without  either  spoiling  what  has  been  done  or  making  an 
addition  in  this  article;  which,  by-the-by,  will  be  much  more  expen- 
sive than  you  imagined.  However  I  shall  accommodate  it  to  your 
ideas,  as  much  as  I  should  think  you  would  yourself,  were  you  on  the 
spot. 

I  expect  we  shall  finish  the  reading  psalms  this  week,  and  that  we 
shall  have  the  first  sheet  of  the  singing  psalms  ready  for  next  post. 
The  waiting  for  it  can  be  no  injury  in  regard  to  the  composing  part, 
but  for  the  press  work  (which  Mr.  Hall  considers  as  the  principal),  it 
may  put  us  back  a  little. 

In  regard  to  the  selections,  instead  of' the  Venite,  I  believe  they  had 
better  stand  as  they  are.  You  know  the  design  is  to  introduce  such 
portions  respecting  the  Messiah  as  could  not  be  agreeably  retained  in 
their  old  places;  now  the  including  some  Scriptural  sentences  must 
either  supersede  some  of  said  portions  or  make  this  part  of  the  service 
too  long  ;  at  least  this  would  be  the  case  on  Good  Friday  and  Christmas 
day.  Willi  regard  to  the  reading  psalms  of  those  days  I  mentioned  to 
you,  and  requested  you  to  look  at  them,  that  I  had  in  a  rubric  at  the 
end  referred  to  one  portion  of  the  Psalter  to  be  read  on  all  these  festi- 
vals at  morning  prayer,  another  at  evening  prayer,  another  for  the 
morning  of  the  fast  days,  and  another  for  the  evening  of  the  same. 

I  have  been  considering  the  daily  calendar ;  and  do  not  find  that  we 
have  any  power  given  us  on  this  head.  Nevertheless  the  reading  the 
Apocrypha  has  been  so  old  an  objection  to  our  Church,  that  I  believe  it 
would  be  taken  well  if  we  were  to  substitute  others.  My  plan  for  this 
is  to  divide  so  many  of  the  longer  chapters  as  will  make  up  for  the 
number  to  be  expunged,  which  I  find  on  examination  may  easily  be 
done.  Perhaps,  too,  it  might  be  well  to  divide  as  many  chapters  of  the 
Gospels  and  Acts  as  may  be  suited  to  the  reading  them  over  twice  in- 
stead of  thrice  in  the  year.  Those  from  the  Epistles  may  very  well 
stand  as  they  are.     I  must  request  your  opinion  on  this  head: 


1/86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  I/I 

On  another  review  of  my  plan  of  proper  lessons  I  am  fully  satisfied 
with  it. 

1  know  of  no  suitable  hymns  on  the  subjects  you  have  named. 

I  do  not  think  it  will  be  necessary  to  print  the  hymns  in  a  smaller 

type  than  the  rest,  and  if  not  necessary,  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it 

will  not  look  so  well. 

1  am,  yours  respectfully  and  affectionately, 

Wm.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  W.  Smith. 

P.  S. — I  hope  to  send  you  per  next  post  the  Psalter  complete. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

January  30th,   17S6. 

I  enclose  the  remaining  hymns.  The  Psalms  of  David,  unless  where 
tortured  by  versifiers,  have  but  few  evangelical  subjects,  and  stood  much 
in  need  of  a  supplement,  which  our  Church  has  allowed  from  time  to 
time  and  we  have  full  power  to  offer,  as  neither  the  psalms  which  we 
have  selected  nor  this  supplement  of  hymns  are  more  than  an  exercise 
of  our  best  discretion  in  the  work  committed  to  us,  and  not  an  essential 
part  of  our  reformed  liturgy. 

You  will  find  the  hymns  all  upon  evangelical  subjects  and  practical 
Christianity,  viz.  :  On  the  Nativity,  on  the  Passion,  Resurrection,  As- 
cension, Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  The  Holy  Communion,  Time,  Life, 
Death,  Hymns  at  Sea  and  various  Occasions  of  Life,  in  Sickness,  in 
Time  of  Public  Calamity,  Thanksgivings  for  Mercies  received,  On  State 
Days,  as  July  4th,  November  1st,  Thursday,  etc.,  concluding  with 
Christ's  commission  to  preach  the  Gospel,  two  hymns  which,  when  we 
have  ordination  of  ministers  at  home,  may  be  properly  sung  in  time  of 
public  worship.  The  subjects  you  see  are  numerous,  and  not  more  than 
two  or  three  hymns  at  most  on  any  subject.  The  hymns  are  generally 
short,  too.  Should  you  think  that  any  of  them  might  be  left  out,  I 
could  wish  to  know  which  of  them.  There  is  the  greatest  number  for 
the  Nativity  and  for  Funerals,  but  here  we  ought  not  to  be  too  sparing. 
In  the  enclosed  collection,  Hymns  36,  39,  40-43  are  particularly  and 
beautifully  applicable  to  their  subjects.  In  short,  I  have  taken  great 
pains  to  collect  and  adapt  them,  giving  nothing  of  my  own,  and  I  think 
the  number,  as  they  are  generally  short  (although  amounting  to  fifty), 
is  not  too  great,  as  the  Psalms  of  David  are  greatly  abridged,  and  many 
of  them  taken  out  of  the  places  where  they  stood  promiscuously  with 
other  psalms,  and  placed  as  hymns  under  the  heads  to  which  they 
belong,  so  that  you  will  take  care  not  to  print  these  particular  passages 
of  the  psalms  with  the  singing  psalms.  Let  me  hear  particularly  from 
you  next  post  on  this  whole  subject.  I  am  more  and  more  pleased  with 
the  arrangement  of  the  singing  psalms  under  the  different  heads  to 
which  they  will  apply,  which  are  but  four  or  five,  and  finding  hymns 


I72  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

founded  on  other  Scriptures,  as  we  ...   .  worship.     Clergy  and  laity 
here  are  greatly  ....   to  purchase  books. 

You  will  please  to  put  the  proper  numbers  to  the  pages  of  the  enclosed 
hymns,  as  I  have  forgot  at  what  my  last  week's  copy  closed,  and  there- 
fore have  marked  or  paged  them  A,  B,  C,  etc.,  which  you  will  expunge 
when  you  put  the  numbers.  Please  to  put  Hymn  25  on  Recovery 
from  Sichicss  in  the  former  copy  next  after  Hymn  40  of  this  enclosed 
copy,  being  on  the  same  subject ;  and  alter  the  numbers  of  the  hymns 
accordingly  from  No.  25  to  No.  40,  inclusive. 

Next  post  shall  answer  all  the  unanswered  parts  of  your  former  letters, 
send  you  the  preface,  and  conclude  this  business,  with  great  thankful- 
ness to  God  who  hath  enabled  us  to  carry  it  forward,  with  so  great  har- 
mony and  satisfaction  to  ourselves,  and  I  trust  it  will  be  to  the  full 
satisfaction  of  our  constituents  and  the  public.  Write  me  fully  this 
week,  as  I  am  to  cross  the  bay  next  Sunday  evening. 

Yours, 

W.m.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  February  1st,  1786. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  have  received  yours  by  this  day's  post ;  and,  agreeably 
to  your  desire,  sit  down  to  write  to  you  particularly  on  the  subjects 
of  it. 

I  send  you  (with  the  Psalter)  the  first  proof-sheet  of  the  psalms.  You 
will  see  that  I  have  divided  them.  You  objected  to  this  in  your  former 
letter  that  it  will  become  necessary  to  leave  out  parts  of  psalms  for 
want  of  enough  to  make  one  division.  I  answer  that  it  will  not  happen 
if  we  allow  that  to  be  enough  which  may  suffice  for  one  time  of  the 
clerk's  singing.  You  also  took  notice  that  the  other  plan  was  adopted 
in  respect  to  the  reading  psalms.  I  answer  that  the  same  reason  does 
not  hold  in  the  singing  psalms,  viz. :  their  being  used  together.  Our 
brethren  here  are  clear  for  dividing  them  and  authorize  me  to  say  so, 
and  Mr.  Hopkinson  thinks  the  other  plan  very  exceptionable.  I  beg 
you  to  weigh  the  matter  once  more ;  and  if  after  all  you  should  continue 
in  your  present  mind  I  will  execute  it  accordingly,  provided  you  will 
take  your  pen  and  set  down  precisely  what  psalms  shall  follow  one 
another,  so  as  to  be  a  guide  to  the  printer.  In  doing  this  you  will 
probably  (like  myself)  be  tired  of  the  idea  of  running  them  into  one 
another:  if  not,  I  will  perform  my  promise.  You  will  observe  that  I 
have  put  the  rubric  mark.  I  thought  this  proper  to  make  it  harmonize 
with  the  other  parts  of  the  liturgy,  and  to  show  with  what  view  the 
psalms  are  introduced.  In  the  old  book  they  were  no  part  of  the  com- 
mon prayer,  but  were  only  used  by  the  royal  permission.  With  us,  as 
I  conceive,  they  are  to  be  part  of  the  liturgy. 


1/86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  1 73 

In  regard  to  the  form  of  the  hymns  I  have  to  remark  that  I  think 
they  should  be  introduced  like  the  psalms,  with  the  rubric  mark  before 
them,  with  a  similar  direction  in  regard  to  the  discretion  of  the  minis- 
ter, leaving  out  the  word  ''Supplement,"  because  they  will  be  nearly,  if 
not  quite,  as  large  as  the  collection  of  psalms.  I  would  change  the 
Latin  Gloria  Patri  to  English  and  call  it  Hymn  i. 

In  the  collection  sent  up  last  week  (I  do  not  think  the  other  admits 
the  same  criticism)  there  are  some  lines  which  I  wish  for  your  consent 
to  alter,  under  the  condition  of  Mr.  Hopkinson's  joint  approbation. 

■\Yell  may  the  sun  as  hell  be  black. 
I  wish  for  a  substitute  for  this. 

See  streaming  from  th'  accursed  tree, 

may  be  thus  altered, 

Behold,  fast  streaming  from  the  tree,  etc.,  etc. 

Mr.  Hopkinson  thinks,  with  me,  that  it  is  altogether  improper  to 
transfer  psalms  to  the  head  of  hymns,  merely  to  change  their  names; 
and  we  think  that  they  may  very  well  stand  in  their  proper  places  to  be 
applied  discretionately,  except  where  some  considerable  changes  in  the 
composition  to  accommodate  it  to  the  occasion  may  apologize  for  the 
transposition  ;   or  else  a  collection  be  made  from  different  psalms. 

The  psalms  applied  to  the  Ascension  must  be  taken  in  so  strained  a 
sense  as  not  to  consist  with  the  liberty  allowable  in  composing  a  hymn. 
The  two  hymns  which  conclude  your  second  collection,  and  which  refer 
to  Christ's  command  to  preach  the  Gospel,  would  suit  admirably  well 
for  this  festival. 

I  enclose  you  a  little  essay  of  Mr.  Hopkinson  for  the  Fourth  of  July 
and  the  first  Thursday  in  November.  He  desires  me  to  mention  that 
he  is  conscious  of  having  left  out  in  the  latter  some  fine  portions  of  the 
second  psalm  from  which  it  is  taken  ;  but  it  was  to  make  it  a  reason- 
able portion  for  singing  at  one  time.  He  thinks  one  for  each  occasion 
sufficient,  and  that  for  the  other  time  of  singing,  a  portion  might  be 
taken  at  discretion  from  the  psalms.  But  if  you  choose  two  for  each 
occasion,  you  have  got  one  for  November  against  which  there  can  be 
no  objection  unless  that  the  sentiments  are  the  same  with  those  of 
Psalm  65.  As  to  the  very  fine  parts  of  Psalm  68,  I  foresee  many  objec- 
tions to  the  making  it  a  stated  part  of  our  service  for  the  day.  Besides 
the  delicacy  of  our  situation,  as  well  as  on  account  of  the  prejudice  of 
our  brethren  at  our  present  application  to  England,  it  may  well  be 
questioned  whether  the  use  of  such  expressions  be  not  inconsistent  with 
the  sentiments  which  should  take  place  with  peace,  however  proper 
"flagranti  Bel'o."     Even  the  line, 

Their  proud  oppressors'  righteous  doom, 


174  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

in  (perhaps)  the  best  verse  of  the  psalm  is  rather  too  strong.  I  would 
prefer  something  from  Psalms  89  and  18,  of  which  I  shall  send  you  a 
sketch  on  a  piece  of  paper. 

I  forgot  to  mention  when  writing  of  the  psalms,  the  order  in  which  I 
had  arranged  them.  You  know  the  four  general  heads  we  fixed  on  were, 
Psalms  of  Praise,  etc. ;  Psalms  of  Prayer,  etc. ;  Psalms  of  Thanksgiving, 
etc. ;  and  Psalms  of  Instruction,  etc.  I  found  all  would  range  under  these 
heads  except  a  few,  which  I  have  thought  best  to  put  at  the  end  under 
these  two  heads :  Prophetical  Psalms,  applied  in  the  New  Testament  to 
the  character  of  the  Messiah — and  psalms  composed  during  the  want 
of  an  opportunity  of  the  public  worship  of  God.  If  you  propose  any 
alteration  of  this  order,  you  will  be  pleased  to  set  down  minutely,  the 
psalms  that  suit  any  new  heads  you  may  propose.  Notwithstanding  the 
impatience  of  the  public  (and  I  may  add  my  own  desire  of  having  this 
business  out  of  hand)  I  very  willingly  stop  the  press  this  week,  to  com- 
ply with  your  desire  of  seeing  the  first  sheet  of  the  psalms,  before  it  be 
worked  off.  Mr.  Hall  says  it  will  be  to  no  purpose  to  go  on  composing, 
as  the  preparing  a  sheet  will  not  take  him  half  the  time  of  working  it 
off".  The  week,  however,  will  not  be  wholly  lost ;  as  to  prevent  it,  I 
have  giver?  him  the  tables  for  finding  the  holy  days;  which  take  up  just 
a  form.  The  Table  for  Easter  I  have  adjusted  to  two  Cycles  of  the 
moon,  adding  the  Epacts,  Golden  Numbers  and  Dominical  Letters;  the 
present  year  begins  a  Cycle  and  the  second  ends  at  1823.  This  space 
makes  a  convenient  page  with  our  letter.  I  have  omitted  in  this  table 
all  the  holy  days  besides  Easter;  because  that  being  known,  the  next 
table  shows  the  others.  In  all  other  respects  I  shall  print  the  said 
tables,  agreeably  to  Dr.  Franklin's  book,*  which  has  them  in  the  neat- 
est way  of  any  I  have  seen.     This  form  will  be  our  week's  work. 

*  The  title  of  the  book  is  as  follows: 

"Abridgment  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  Administration  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  use  of  the 
Church  of  England,  together  with  the  Psalter  or  Psalms  of  David.  Pointed  as  they 
are  to  be  sung  or  said  in  Churches.     London,  Printed  in  the  Year  MDCCLXXIII." 

Dr.  Franklin,  in  replying  to  Mr.  Granville  Sharp,  who  had  written  to  him  making 
some  inquiry  as  to  the  character  of  this  book,  thus  writes  : 

Passy,  July  5,  1785. 
"  DfAR  Sir:  ....  The  liturgy  you  mention  was  an  abridgment  of  the  prayers, 
made  hy  a  noble  lord  of  my  acquaintance,  who  requested  me  to  assist  him  by  taking 
the  rest  of  the  book,  viz.,  the  Catechism  and  the  reading  and  singing  psalms.  Those 
I  abridged,  by  retaining  of  the  Catechism  only  the  two  questions,  What  is  your  duty 
to  God  ?  What  is  your  duty  to  your  neighbor  ?  with  their  answers.  The  psalms  were 
much  contracted,  by  leaving  out  the  repetitions  (of  which  I  found  more  than  I  could 
have  imagined),  and  the  imprecations,  which  appeared  not  to  suit  well  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  forgiveness  of  injuries,  and  doing  good  to  enemies.  The  book  was  printed 
for  Wilkie,  in  Paul's  Churchyard,  but  never  much  noticed.  Some  were  given  away, 
very  few  sold,  and  I  suppose  the  bulk  became  waste  paper.     In  the  prayers  so  much 


17 86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  I/$ 

I  have  the  table  of  proper  lessons  ready  ;  and  have  taken  more  pains 
with  this  than  with  any  part  of  the  book. 

As  to  the  Calendar  with  the  table  of  common  lessons,  I  believe  all 
we  can  do  with  it  is  so  to  divide  the  long  lessons  as  to  afford  the  ex- 
punging of  the  Apocrypha.  I  have  minuted  the  lessons  which  may  be 
so  divided  ;  omitting  in  my  way  a  very  few  lessons,  the  public  reading 
of  which  appears  indecent :  and  more  than  a  few  we  cannot  dispense 
with,  without  spoiling  the  design  of  having  the  Bible  read  through  in 
the  course  of  the  year. 

I  rejoice  with  you  on  our  having  so  nearly  finished  the  business  with 
so  much  harmony,  and  am 

Yours,  affectionately, 

Wm.  White. 

Pray  do  not  cross  the  Bay  without  writing  to  me  particularly.  I  have 
written  you  a  very  disorderly  and  I  suppose  incorrect  letter;  but  I  write 
in  haste  and  yet  wish  to  be  full. 


Respecting  the  tunes. 

I  have  contrived  to  substitute  Brunswick  for  St.  Ann's. 

The  hymn  tune  and  those  you  sent  up  would  take  up  very  consider- 
able room  and  therefore  I  mention  what  follows. 

Mr.  Hopkinson  had  so  fitted  his  tunes  as  to  occupy  an  half  sheet  on 
both  sides;  besides  which,  he  is  desirous  of  inserting  a  page  of  chants ; 
and  if  I  comply  with  this,  it  will  be  to  gratify  him,  as  he  has  taken  so 
much  trouble  in  the  matter.  Now  the  half  sheet  only  will  be  a  very 
expensive  matter.  The  ruling  press  alone  (if  Mr.  Leacok's  proposals  are 
reasonable,  and  he  says  he  has  made  them  lower  than  he  would  for  any 
but  a  charitable  purpose — however  I  shall  consult  judges)  will  be  a 
demand  on  us  for  ^62  ioi\  When  the  book  comes  out  it  will  be  some 
time  before  remittances  of  cash  are  made  from  the  other  States,  and  in 
the  mean  time  I  shall  have  to  settle  with  the  printer,  bank,  etc.  Mat- 
ters being  thus  circumstanced,  I  wish  to  add  no  more  to  the  music. 
You  know  tunes  may  be  sung  besides  those  printed.  For  my  part,  I 
am  convinced,  that  no  one  circumstance  impedes  singing  in  our 
churches  so  much  as  great  diversity  of  tunes. 

N.  B. — Mr.  Hopkinson  thinks  the  tunes  sent  up  very  bad  and  desti- 
tute of  melody. 

was  retrenched,  that  approbation  could  hardly  be  expected ;  but   I  think  with  you,  a 
moderate  abridgment  might  not  only  be  useful,  but  generally  acceptable. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sir,  etc.,  etc., 

"B.  Franklin." 


I76  LIFE   Ai\TD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  February  6,   1786. 

I  hope,  as  you  have  ordered  matters,  there  will  be  no  great  delay  at 
the  press.  I  received  by  your  sending  me  these  proofs,  the  psalmody. 
It  was  only  that  I  might  have  a  specimen  with  me  across  the  Bay  as  far 
as  the  book  is  printed.  If  you  have  attended  fully  to  what  I  wrote  in 
my  former  letter,  I  think  I  left  you  at  liberty  to  follow  the  arrangement 
you  have  made  of  the  psalms,  provided  enough  could  be  had  from 
every  one  psalm,  for  a  short  portion  to  sing,  which  from  memory  I  did 
not  apprehend  would  be  the  case,  as  from  some  of  the  reading  psalms 
but  one  or  two  verses  were  retained ;  and  these  I  thought  must  either 
be  rejected  in  the  singing  psalms  or  joined  with  some  other  psalms. 
After  all  I  see  no  difference  in  this  mode,  for  all  that  comes  under  the 
first  metre,  on  praise  and  adoration,  stands  exactly  in  the  same  order  it 
would  have  done  in  the  other  mode,  and  would  have  made  but  thirty- 
five  verses  as  one  chapter  or  psalm.  But  I  am  very  well  satisfied  as  it 
is:  only  as  in  the  rubric  prefixed,  all  of  them  are  said  to  be  "selected 
from  the  Psalms  of  David" — the  name  of  David  need  stand  at  the 
head  of  each  particular  new  psalm  or  selection.  Might  it  not  be 
Psalm  1  [from  8th,]  and  yet  it  seems  as  well  as  you  have  it — so  I  have 
no  more  to  say  on  this  head. 

I  think  the  substitutes  for  O  come  let  us  sing,  etc.,  on  Christmas,  Ash 
Wednesday,  etc.,  Good  Friday,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  old  one  for  Easter, 
in  all  future  editions,  had  better  be  inserted  with  their  proper  titles  in  the 
place  where  they  are  to  be  read,  that  is  just  after  the  daily  Venite  or  O 
come,  etc.,  to  save  the  trouble  of  turning  the  book  and  to  be  consistent 
with  the  rest  of  our  arrangements.  There  is  a  precedent  for  this  in  the 
Communion  Service,  where  all  the  Prefaces  for  these  particular  days  are 
collected  into  the  place  where  they  are  to  be  said  or  sung.  If  you 
approve  this,  it  is  easy  to  alter  the  rubric  prefixed  to  these  new  Venites 
accordingly.  That  for  Ascension  Day  might  have  concluded  with  the 
eighth  verse.  The  following  verses,  especially  from  Psalm  2,  might 
have  better  been  for  Whit-Sunday  with  some  other  verses  which  are  now 
set  apart  for  it.  But  I  do  not  now  wish  to  alter  the  press,  except  in  the 
rubric  aforesaid,  if  you  approve  the  transposition  of  all  the  substitutes 
into  one  place  with  the  daily  Venite  in  future  editions. 

The  line  "See  streaming  from  th'  accursed  tree" — is  by  taking  it 
from  the  original  author,  Watts.  'Tis  altered  thus  in  the  Magdalen 
Collection  from  which  you  recommended  in  your  note : 

See,  streaming  from  "Cm  fatal  tree — 
And  the  other  line — 

Thou  sun  as  deepest  night  be  black. 
I  can  see  no  more  impropriety  in  transferring  the  sirging  psalms  into 


I786]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  1/7 

hymns  under  the  heads  to  which  the)-  apply,  than  in  the  method  we 
have  taken  to  transfer  them  under  the  three  proper  heads  of  praise,  etc., 
as  now  to  be  published.  The  few  passages  that  relate  to  the  Cruci- 
fixion, to  the  Ascension,  etc.,  can  stand  no  where  so  well  as  among  the 

hymns  under  those  heads.     They  would psalms,  or  under  any 

of  the  few  heads  which  the taken  by  Tate  and  Brady  in  versi- 
fying the  psalms  and  the  composition  of  some  other  parts  of  Scripture. 
I  pay  great  regard  to  the  judgment  of  Mr.  Hopkinson  and  my  other 
respected  friends,  the  clergy  of  your  city ;  but  we  have  clergy  of  some 
judgment  here  whom  I  consult  also,  and  in  this  arrangement  and  col- 
lection of  hymns,  something  of  which  kind  has  been  long  wished.  I 
have  some  dependence  on  my  own  judgment  also,  and  should  be  happy 
if  you  and  the  other  gentlemen  could  agree  to  have  the  specimen  of 
hymns  offered  to  the  public  with  as  itw  deviations  as  possible  from  the 
plan  which  upon  great  deliberation  I  have  submitted  to  you,  and  Dr. 
Wharton,  if  he  can  be  consulted. 

I  cannot  conceive  for  what  reason  you  say  the  psalms  applied  as 
hymns  for  the  Ascension  must  be  taken  in  strained  sense  to  apply  to  that 
occasion.  Are  they  not  the  24th  and  47th,  the  very  same  which  you 
have  applied  instead  of  the  Vcnite  for  that  day?  The  two  hymns  in 
the  conclusion  do  not  apply  better  to  the  Ascension  than  to  Whitsun- 
day, or  some  other  days.  Christ's  commission  was  delivered  to  his 
Apostles  while  on  earth,  and  the  gifts  which  he  sent  from  on  high  to 
enable  them  to  go  forth  in  his  name  were  not  on  the  Day  of  Ascension. 
They  seem  to  stand  very  well  where  they  are  either  to  be  used  on  the 
occasion  as  suggested,  or  any  other  to  which  they  will  apply.  I  think 
less  than  two  hymns  for  any  one  festival  or  occasion  would  not  do. 
You  have  forgot  to  enclose  Mr.  Hopkinson's  psalm  or  hymn  for  July 
4th.  What  you  propose  may,  if  you  will,  be  added  to  July  4th,  but 
the  few  verses  I  have  taken  of  Psalm  68,  I  think  might  stand.  The 
words  proud ''oppressor  you  may  alter,  and  the  five  lines  which  I  hinted 
at  in  my  note  and  which  are  in  the  following  part  of  the  psalm,  you 
know  I  never  intended  to  be  made  part  of  our  stated  service  for  the 
present  at  least. 

Please  to  finish  the  calendar  as  you  propose.  You  have  taken  so  much 
pains  with  it  that  unless  I  could  find  time  to  take  equal  pains  in  the 
examination  it  would  be  wrong  to  interfere.  I  think  your  plan  good, 
only  do  not  make  any  of  the  lessons  unreasonably  long,  and  contrive 
the  introductions  and  breaks  suitably. 

Enclosed  you  have  my  essay  of  a  preface ;  the  post  is  just  setting  off. 
The  preface  or  address  which  was  a  matter  particularly  entrusted  to  the 
committee  I  have  ever  considered  as  a  matter  of  great  importance,  as 
the  first  impressions  on  the  introduction  of  the  book  may  be  of  serious 
concern.     Of  this  the  Church  was  sensible  in  Charles  2d's  time,  on  the 


178  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1786 

last  review,  when  they  wrote  their  several  prefaces,  giving  a  full  account 
of  the  reasons  of  all  the  alterations,  the  abolition  of  Ceremonies,  etc. 
I  have  therefore  interwovenmuch  of  that  preface,  and  rather  than  to 
set  forth  what  we  have  done  ourselves,  which  indeed  is  but  little,  have 
o-iven  an  account  of  what  the  wisest  and  best  members  of  the  Church 
of  England  have  long  wished  to  have  done,  in  order  to  show  that  we 
are  not  pretending  to  be  leaders  in  reformation,  but  follow  them  and 
remain  connected  with  them.  This  will  state  our  work  quite  in  a  light, 
wherein  few  consider  it,  and  give  a  historical  information  with  which 
the  people  in  general  of  our  communion  will  be  pleased,  and  be  made 
able  to  give  an  answer  to  gainsayers. 

I  have  also  interwoven  the  chief  part  of  your  preface;  but  found  it 
unnecessary  to  give  the  reason  of  every  particular  alteration,  but  rather 
following  the  example  of  the  old  preface,  to  pay  the  necessary  mark  of 
complaisance  to  the  reader  by  observing  that  a  comparison  of  the  old 
book  with  the  new  would  sufficiently  [show]  both  the  alterations  and 
the  reason  of  them.  The  preface  should  be  set  in  a  small  and  hand- 
some letter.  It  will  not  altogether  be  so  long  as  the  old  preface  to  our 
common  prayer,  the  treatise  and  ceremonies  and  other  notifications 
which  were  found  necessary  to  preface  to  that  book ;  and  our  reasons 
for  being  particular  are  at  least  as  strong  as  the  Church  of  England  in 
1662.  Many  will  strive  to  make  the  people  believe  we  are  wholly  de- 
parting from  the  Church  of  England — nay  treating  her  as  a  corrupt  and 
erroneous  church,  by  setting  up  a  reformation  of  our  own.  But  I  hope 
this  preface  will  obviate  and  confute  these  and  all  such  like  misrepresen- 
tations, especially,  when  it  has  undergone  your  judicious  and  sober 
revisal.  You  must  not,  i.  e.,  I  hope  you  will  not,  regard  a  few  pages 
or  sentences  more  or  less  in  the  length  of  this  important  part,  nor  the 
little  additional  expense  of  the  psalms.  The  book  will  sell  as  readily 
at  ~s.  6d.  as  at  5J. 

You  apprehended  some  haste  and  incoherence  in  your  last  to  me. 
You  have  all  that  in  this  letter,  the  last  part  of  which  has  been  written 
in  the  office  while  the  mail  was  closing,  having  been  very  late  this 
morning  before  I  got  the  preface  concluded.  I  hope  now  we  have 
nearly  done,  and  so  without  more  pre/aces  or  conclusions, 

I  remain,  etc., 

Yours  affectionately, 

Wm.   Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  February  10,  1786. 
Dear  Sir:   I  received  yours  of  the  6th  with  the  preface.     As  you 
seem  not  fully  satisfied  as  to  the  propriety  of  leaving  out  the  words  "of 
David"  I  have  left  them  stand.     Your  criticism  respecting  part  of  the 


1/86]  KEi:    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  \jg 

2d  Psalm  was  so  evidently  just,  that  I  have  given  Mr.  Hall  the  trouble 
of  transposing  the  verses  from  the  end  of  Ascension  Day  to  the  begin- 
ning of  Whitsunday.  The  transposing  of  the  substitutes  for  the  Venite 
to  the  Morning  Prayer  seems  to  me  not  quite  so  proper,  as  the  placing 
them  as  we  have  done  in  the  case  of  the  4th  of  July,  etc.,  and  the 
collects  for  Ash  Wednesday,  to  services  appropriate  to  the  respective 
days;  besides  which,  it  would  make  a  break  in  the  Morning  Prayer, 
which  at  present  stands  just  as  it  is  to  be  read.  The  prefaces  in  the 
communion  being  continuations  and  part' of  the  sentence  of  what  pre- 
cedes them,  could  not  have  been  otherwise  placed  without  confusing 
the  officiating  minister.  You  do  not  lay  stress  on  this,  and  it  stands  as 
before. 

I  give  up  my  sentiment  respecting  the  hymnifying  the  psalms;  and 
shall  only  observe,  that  in  mentioning  the  opinion  of  our  brethren  of 
this  city,  my  intention  was  not  to  undervalue  yours,  or  that  of  our 
brethren  whom  you  have  an  opportunity  of  consulting;  but  only  to  be 
a  counterpoise  to  that  deference  I  entertain  for  your  judgment  which 
might  otherwise  have  made  me  sacrifice  my  sense  of  the  matter  rather 
more  easily  than  my  duty  in  the  present  business  would  warrant. 

I  enclose  you  Mr.  Hopkinson's  hymns  of  which  I  request  your  opinion. 
I  intend  executing  this  matter  agreeably  to  your  desires.  You  seem  to 
have  left  a  little  liberty  with  regard  to  verbal  alterations:  If  I  am  wrong 
you  will  correct  me.  I  wish  you  could  get  rid  of  "the  Spoil  of  Armies 
once  their  dread,"  as  applied  to  Ascension  Day. 

I  shall  be  attentive  to  the  Calendar.  It  is  not  within  our  appoint- 
ment ;  and  yet  I  believe  we  shall  be  thanked  for  so  dividing  the  lessons 
as  to  serve  the  triple  purpose  of  shortening  the  service,  expunging  the 
Apocryphal  chapters,  and  getting  rid  of  some  the  public  reading  of 
which  may  seem  immodest.  I  fear  we  must  let  the  New  Testament 
lessons  stand  as  at  present :  and  yet  the  Gospels  and  Acts  might  be 
very  well  worded  so  as  to  be  read  twice  instead  of  thrice  in  the  year. 
As  to  the  table  of  proper  lessons,  I  have  taken  great  pains  with  it  and 
hope  it  will  meet  your  approbation. 

I  like  your  preface  both  in  plan  and  in  execution.  The  particularities 
in  mine  are  rendered  unnecessary  by  the  articles  you  have  inserted  as 
proposed  at  the  Revolution.  A  few  observations  that  occurred  to  me 
in  the  reading  I  have  noted  in  a  separate  paper  and  will  enclose. 

You  seem  to  have  applied  what  I  said  on  the  article  of  expense  to  the 
printer's  business  instead  of  the  psalmody.  I  approved  highly  of  your 
proposal  in  this  respect;  but  should  begrudge  the  money,  if  much  were 
to  be  inserted.  You  seem  to  have  been  as  little  versed  as  myself  in  the 
costs  of  this  business. 

You  speak  of  $1  for  the  book.  I  thought  of  the  same;  but  find 
some  are  of  opinion,  that  it  will  be  considered  as  forcing  money  for  our 
funds.     It  is  an  objection  that  should  have  no  weight,  but  for. our  read- 


l8o  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  ^1786 

ing  psalms,  which  will  make  the  purchasing  of  new  books  indispensably 
necessary  to  the  joining  in  our  service :  and  we  might  have  some  regard 
to  those  of  middling  condition  who  would  wish  a  Prayer  Book  to  be  in 
the  hands  of  every  member  of  their  families. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  natural  for  us  to  wish  to  see  our  labors  in  this 
business  productive  of  some  fruit  to  the  widows  and  the  orphans. 
I  only  throw  out  the  above  for  your  consideration,  and  am 
Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

W.  White. 

P.  S. — I  request  you  to  consider  whether  it  will  not  be  best  to  bring 
in  Addison's  Translations  '■'The  Lord  my  pasture  shall  prepare,'"  and 
" The  spacious  firmament,  etc.,"  among  the  hymns.  They  are  not  strict 
translations.  The  latter  at  least  can  come  in  no  other  way  as  it  is  in 
the  same -metre  with  Tate  and  Brady's  Translations  of  the  19th  Psalm. 
It  will  not  be  too  late  to  decipher  this  by  return  of  post. 

P.  S. — The  December  packet  informs  of  Willet's  arrival :  by  whom 
went  the  original  letter  to  the  bishops. 

Some   Queries   on   the   Preface   to  the   Common   Prayer.     (Dr. 

AYhite.*) 

Page  2d.  Quaere  the  propriety  of  saying  anything  about  the  Church 
of  Rome. 

Page  10.  Protestant  Episcopal  Churches.  Would  it  not  be  better  in 
the  singular  number — at  least  it  should  be  so  when  we  speak  of  the  acts 
of  the  late  Convention,  in  order  to  harmonise  with  the  phraseology  of 
the  Constitution. 

Page  12.  The  apology  for  not  reviewing  the  collects,  etc.,  appears  to 
me  exceptionable.  1st,  because  the  pleading  the  want  of  time  seems  an 
improper  excuse  in  business  of  this  magnitude  and  holds  out  the  ex- 
pediency of  another  review;  2dly,  because  we  do  not  know  that  the 
Convention  would  not  have  given  the  necessary  powers  to  the  com- 
mittee as  is  insinuated,  and  3dly,  because  there  are  other  alterations 
alluded  to  which  we  have  not  adopted.  I  wish  the  expression  to  be 
more  general;  thus — "it  will  appear  that  almost  every  amendment, 
etc."  Ibid.  It  is  said,  that  the  service  is  so  arranged  as  that  we  need 
not  turn  backwards  and  forwards.  This  being  not  exactly  true,  I  wish 
the  explanation  modified. 

*  The  Qiasries  of  Dr.  White  are,  of  course,  upon  the  preface  by  Dr.  Smith,  as  orig- 
inally written.  Dr  Smith  adopted  some  of  the  suggestions  and  not  others.  The  force 
of  Dr.  White's  suggestions,  of  course,  do  not  so  clearly  appear  in  the  case  of  those 
adopted;  since,  in  the  prelace  as  given  supra,  (pp.  158-165),  the  original  language  of 
Dr.  Smith  disappears  in  the  new  words  adopted. — H.  W   S. 

lor  Dr.  Smith's  views  upon  Dr.  White's  Quaries,  see  infra,  pp.  188-190. 


1/86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  l8l 

Page  13.  "For  the  greater  ease  of  the  clerks,  etc."  This  rubric 
says  they  are  to  be  sung  at  the  discretion  of  the  minister.  It  may  be 
corrected  by  putting  the  words  "of  choosing"  instead  of  "of  the 
clerks." 

Page  14,  in  the  note.  I  have  here  two  remarks  to  make.  1.  It  seems 
hardly  worth  while  to  quote  Bishop  Burnet  for  what  is  to  be  found  in 
so  many  writers.  2dly.  The  explanation  will  militate  against  the  whim- 
sical ideas  of  some  persons  grounded  as  they  conceive  on  holy  writ. 
We  should  avoid  touching  of  principle  as  much  as  possible;  and  the 
footing  on  which  (I  think)  we  should  rest  the  omission  of  the  clause 
with  the  persons  alluded  to,  is  that  even  supposing  their  opinion  true, 
yet,  being  grounded  on  a  few  controverted  passages,  it  ought  not  to  be 
made  part  of  so  very  concise  and  general  a  confession  of  our  faith. 

Page  15.  "Son  of  the  Church" — say  "Member,"  lest  we  may  seem 
to  deny  the  right  of  female  judgment. 


Quaere.  Ought  not  some  reason  to  be  given  for  omitting  the  creeds? 
The  reason  might  be  that  we  did  not  judge  the  Athanasian  to  tend  to 
edification,  and  that  the  Nicene  was  a  repetition. 

And  ought  not  a  reason  to  be  briefly  given  for  "the  Visitation  of 
Prisoners?"  if  it  were  only  to  make  an  honest  acknowledgment  of  our 
debt  to  the  Church  of  Ireland. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  February  6.  17S6. 
Dear  Sir  :  I  had  written  you  a  long  letter,  to  send  by  the  Western 
Shore  post:  but  missed  the  opportunity  from  not  knowing  that  the 
office  had  changed  the  days.  Another  post  goes  to-morrow  morning. 
but  as  you  may  have  left  Annapolis,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  reserve  it 
for  the  Eastern  Shore  on  Wednesday.  If,  however,  I  should  have  a  line 
from  you  at  Ann's  informing  of  your  stay  there  this  week,  I  will  repeat 
the  substance  of  what  I  have  written,  although  there  is  nothing  requir- 
ing an  immediate  answer. 

So  I  shall  say  no  more  at  present,  except  to  acknowledge  the  receipt 
of  the  preface,  and  to  express  my  approbation  of  it,  and  that 

I  am,  yours  affectionately, 

W.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Baltimore,  February  25,  1 786. 

Dear  Sir:    As  Mr.    Green,   by  his  newspaper,   knew  the  different 

places  where  I  was  to  be  every  day  during  my  late  tour  for  holding  the 

election  of  Visitors  and  Governors  of  St.  John's  College,  he  forwarded 

your  short  letter  of  February  12th  to  Upper  Marlboro'  where  it  met  me 


1 82  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/36 

the  22d  instant  on  my  way  to  this  town;  and  gave  me  the  great  satis- 
faction of  hearing  that  you  had  received  the  preface,  and  that  it  hath 
met  with  your  approbation.  By  our  appointment,  among  other  things, 
we  were  directed  to  "accompany  the  Prayer  Book  with  a  proper  Preface 
or  Address,  setting  forth  the  reason  and  expediency  of  the  alterations, 
etc."  This,  therefore,  was  a  very  important  part  of  the  great  trust 
committed  to  us,  and  I  was  exceedingly  anxious  that  it  should  be  dis- 
charged in  the  fullest  and  yet  least  ostentatious  manner  possible,  hold- 
ing forth  this  leading  idea  through  the  whole,  that  we  were  not  attempt- 
ing any  novel  reformations  or  the  least  departure  from  what  has  been 
the  general  sense  of  the  greatest  and  best  men  in  our  Church  for  a 
century  past.  If  our  address  has  the  effect  intended,  it  will  procure  a 
ready  acceptance  of  the  book,  and  that  not  upon  the  mere  authority 
of  the  Convention,  but  upon  principles  carrying  conviction  to  every 
rational  mind,  and  enabling  them  as  I  hinted  in  my  last  to  give  a 
reason,  etc.,  to  all  who  may  call  in  question  any  part  of  the  alterations 
or  improvements,  which  are  offered.  In  this  view,  the  preface  is  a  neces- 
sary and  essential  part  of  our  work,  and  I  hope  will  not  be  thought  too 
long  as  I  cannot  see  in  what  part  it  could  well  be  abridged  without 
injury.  I  speak  this  from  my  own  wish  to  have  had  it  shorter:  for  you 
do  not  seem  to  make  any  objection  to  its  length,  or  to  anything  else  in 
it,  which  as  I  said  before  gives  me  great  satisfaction.  I  think  I  men- 
tioned in  my  last  letter  that  if  printed  in  a  smaller  letter  it  will  not 
take  more  room  than  the  different  prefaces  before  the  old  Prayer  Book, 
which  are  three  or  four  (exclusive  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity),  viz.  :  ist. 
The  General  Preface;  2d.  Concerning  the  Service  of  the  Church;  3d. 
Of  Ceremonies,  etc. ;  4th.  How  the  Psalter  and  Scripture  are  to  be 
read.  I  beg  your  attention  to  the  punctuation,  both  of  the  hymns  and 
preface,  as  I  never  read  them  over  with  a  view  to  punctuation,  and  you 
have  only  such  stops  or  points  as  fell  from  my  pen  in  a  hasty  transcrip- 
tion. 

Please  to  direct  the  bookbinder  to  prepare  half  a  dozen  copies  of  the 
best  and  first  binding  in  his  power  for  my  use,  as  I  have  engaged  them 
to  some  persons  of  distinction,  friends  and  patrons  of  our  great  under- 
taking. 

Our  Convention  meets  the  4th  of  April.  I  hope  we  shall  not  be  dis- 
appointed in  our  five  hundred  books;  some  of  which  ought  to  be  dis- 
tributed in  the  different  parishes  before  that  time.  You  will  give  all 
dispatch  possible.  Dr.  West  gives  you  his  best  compliments.  He  is 
just  elected  by  Baltimore  Town,  a  Visitor  and  Governor  of  St.  John's 
College.  We  meet  for  the  first  time,  as  a  body  corporate  at  Annapolis 
on  Tuesday  next;  and  on  Wednesday,  March  ist,  I  hope  to  cross  the 
Bay  to  Chester  and  to  receive  your  several  letters  which  may  wait  for 

me  there Have  you  yet  heard  anything  from  England? 

Yours,  etc., 

Wm.  Smith. 


1786]  A'El\    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  1S3 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

March   17th,   17S6. 

Dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  15th  does  not  require  a  long  answer.  I  have 
hastily,  since  my  last,  run  over  the  metre  psalms;  but  except  some  cor- 
rections in  the  punctuation,  which  I  think  might  be  made  to  advantage 
in  sundry  passages,  I  see  little  that  needs  alteration;  and  even  these  are 
too  insignificant,  to  require  a  table  of  Errata.  A  candid  reader  will 
easily  see  they  are  but  little  oversights,  and  I  have  seen  no  impression 
of  the  psalms  or  indeed  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  general,  more  free  from 
typographical  errors,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  your  indefatigable 
attention  to  the  sheets,  joined  I  am  persuaded  to  some  considerable 
care  and  attention  in  Messrs.  Hall  and  Sellers. 

In  the  hymns  enclosed  to  me  in  your  last  are  a  few  lines  I  could  have 
wished  to  amend,  but  hope  they  are  now  printed  off,  and  so  they  must 
stand  as  they  are  at  present.  You  objected  in  your  letter  of  February 
1st  upon  receiving  the  copies  of  the  hymns,  to  a  line  in  the  4th  hymn 
(viz.,  for  Good  Friday),  "Well  may  flic  sun  as  hell  be  black,"  also  in 
your  letter  of  February  16th  you  objected  to  the  expression,  "Spoil  of 
armies  once  their  dread"  in  the  2d  Hymn  for  the  Ascension,  being 
Hymn  X.  I  thought  both  your  objections  well  grounded,  and  readily 
proposed  substitutes;  the  last  of  which  on  Ascension  Day  (as  I  wrote 
you)  I  considered  as  a  great  improvement;  but  as  I  had  not  kept  copies 
of  the  original  hymns  which  I  transmitted  to  you,  I  made  the  altera- 
tions or  substitutions,  from  what  my  memory  retained  of  them  and  in 
both  cases  changed  the  person,  viz.,  putting  the  second  person  for  the 
third ;   instead  of 

"  Thou  sun  as  darkest  night  be  black," 

It  should  be  "The  sun,  etc.,"  and  perhaps  "deepest  night"  for  "darkest 
night. ' ' 

Again  in  Hymn  X,  the  second  for  the  Ascension,  in  stanzas  5  and  6, 
the  second  person  should  be  everywhere  changed  into  the  third  person, 
not  only  on  account  of  the  rhyme  in  the  5th  stanza,  as  "  Thou"  does  not 
rhyme  to  "captivity,"  but  also  on  account  of  the  sense  and  beauty  of 
connection,  which,  as  I  said  before,  I  could  not  so  well  perceive  in 
offering  the  amendment  from  memory.  The  hymn  is  in  double  rhymes, 
and  the  two  stanzas,  viz.,  5th  and  6th,  should  run  thus: 

5  Ascending  high,  in  triumph,  He 

Hath  gifts  receiv'd  for  sinful  men; 
And  captive  led  captivity, 

That  God  may  dwell  on  earth  again. 

6  Ev'n  Rebels  shall  partake  His  grace 

And  humble  proselytes  repair, 
To  worship  at  His  dwelling-place, 
And  all  the  world  pay  homage  there. 


184  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

And  in  Hymn  IX  (the  first  for  the  Ascension)  which  I  consider  as 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  animated  in  the  whole  collection — nay, 
even  sublime — the  first  and  second  verses  taken  from  Psalm  xxiv,  and 
connected  with  verses  that  follow,  which  follow  in  double  rhymes,  should 
for  uniformity,  had  it  been  attended  to  in  due  season,  have  been  changed 
into  double  rhymes  also,  which  might  easily  have  been  done  as  follows, 
viz.,  for  the  words  "  eternal  gates,"  in  the  first  line,  putting  '■'eternal 
domes,"  and  for  the  words  " his  foes"  in  the  third  line  of  verse  second 
putting  "his  foe"  which  would  have  been  much  stronger  in  the  singu- 
lar number  than  the  plural,  in  making  it  applicable  to  the  one  great  foe, 
whom  Christ  came  to  subdue.  As  the  hymns  are  of  different  metres, 
they  might  have  been  marked  as  such;  but  being  all  I  think  of  the  first 
and  second  metre,  the  clerks  cannot  well  mistake  them.  I  would  ob- 
serve too  that  in  singing  or  metre  psalms,  instead  of  putting  the  num- 
bers of  the  psalms,  as  the  running  title  at  the  top  of  each  page,  the  top 
of  the  page,  or  running  title,  had  perhaps  better  have  been  the  subjects 
or  heads  under  which  they  are  classed,  as  "Psalms  of  Praise  and  Ador- 
ation" "Psalms  of  Prayer"  etc.  Thus  at  every  opening  of  the  book, 
the  clerks  or  ministers  would  know  the  subject,  without  turning  back  to 
the  title  or  heads  at  the  beginning  of  each  class  or  set  of  psalms;  and 
these  titles  would  have  stood  in  as  little  room  at  the  top  of  each  page 
as  "  Psalms  II.  III. — Psalms  V.  VI,"  which  are  of  little  use  on  the  top, 
as  a  glance  of  the  eye  shows  the  number,  in  the  body  of  the  pages.  But 
all  these  little  amendments  (the  last  of  which  is  an  afterthought)  are 
too  late  for  the  present,  even  if  they  should  be  deemed  amendments. 

In  that  part  of  the  preface  which  speaks  of  the  failure  of  the  great 
work  of  the  review  at  the  Revolution  in  1689,  I  would  have  wished  to 
have  said  a  little  more  concerning  the  reasons  of  that  unhappy  failure; 
and  that  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Warner,  from  the  preface  to  his  commen- 
tary on  the  Common  Prayer,  a  very  excellent  and  judicious  work  to 
which  I  had  not  attended  when  I  drew  up  the  preface  to  our  bock.  It 
might  yet  be  added  in  a  note  upon  the  word  "miscarried"  in  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph  of  the  preface,  which  you  can  easily  find.  In  my 
rough  copy  it  runs  thus,  which  is  all  that  is  said,  viz. : 

But  this  great  and  good  work  miscarried  at  that  time;  and  the  civil  authority  of 
Great  Britain  hath  not  since  thought  proper  to  revive  it  by  any  new  commission. 

The  note  on  the  foregoing  is  as  follows,  or  it  might  have  been  inter- 
woven with  the  text,  or  stood  altogether  instead  of  the  paragraph  just 
quoted,  viz. : 

After  giving  an  account  of  the  alterations  intended  at  the  Revolution, 
much  as  I  have  stated  them  from  the  same  authors,  as  he  had  to  follow, 
he  concludes  thus : 

But  while  this  important  affair  was  carrying  on,  the  party  which  was  now  at  work 
for  the  abdicated  King,  took   hold  on  this  occasion   to  inflame  men's  minds.     It  was 


I/S6]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  185 

pretended  that  the  Church  was  to  be  demolished,  and  Presbytery  set  tip.  The  trumpet 
of  sedition  was  sounded  as  usual  from  the  pulpits.  The  Universities  took  fire,  and 
began  to  declare  against  the  commission  and  against  all  who  promoted  it,  as  men  who 
intended  to  undermine  the  Church.  So  that  it  was  very  visible  that  the  temper  of  men 
was  not  cool  or  calm  enough  to  encourage  the  further  prosecution  of  this  great  and 
good  design,  which  would  have  been  so  much  to  the  improvement  of  our  public  wor- 
ship, to  the  interest  of  the  Protestant  religion,  and  to  the  honor  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land :  and  thus  it  was  defeated  by  the  turbulency  and  restless  spirit  of  ignorant  and 
factious  and  evil-minded  men.  Why  it  has  not  been  resumed  in  the  days  of  more 
know  ledge,  more  candor  and  Christian  charity,  is  a  question  which  many  good  men 
have  often  asked  with  seriousness  and  zeal,  but  which  no  great  men,  upon  which  it 
lies  to  do  it,  I  believe,  have  ever  answered. 

I  say  that  if  I  had  adverted  to  this  paragraph  in  time,  I  should  prob- 
ably have  inserted  it  at  large  instead  of  the  few  general  lines  which  I 
have  quoted  in  the  two  last  lines  of  the  foregoing  page,  and  the  first 
line  of  this;  or  have  thrown  it  in  a  note  at  the  bottom  as  now  proposed. 
Had  it  stood  in  the  body  of  the  preface,  it  would  come  in  very  well; 
for  after  Dr.  Warner's  words,  "which  no  great  men,  upon  whom  it  lies 
to  do  it,  I  believe,  have  ever  answered,"  the  next  paragraph  of  our 
preface  beginning,  "But  when  in  course  of  his  divine  Providence,  etc.," 
would  just  as  well  have  followed,  as  it  does  the  few  words  I  have  said 
on  the  subject.  But  I  submit  wholly  to  you,  whether  it  may  be  proper 
now  to  insert  it  by  way  of  note,  or  in  the  body,  or  to  leave  the  preface 
just  as  it  is  without  entering  more  particularly  into  the  reasons  of  the 
miscarriage  at  the  Revolution  in  England,  I  would  not  wish  to  draw 
any  opposition  to  what  has  been  done  in  our  Church;  and  yet  I  fear 
the  quotation  above  from  Dr.  Warner  will  yet  be  necessary  (though  it 
may  be  left  out  for  the  present,)  to  show,  if  any  opposition  arises  among 
tis,  it  will  be  from  the  same  principles  as  that  in  England,  a  dislike  to 
our  American  Revolution.  I  would  not  ascribe  the  opposition  or  rather 
disapprobation  which  I  find  in  some  of  my  friends  to  this  principle, 
because  I  believe  they  are  well  satisfied  with  what  Providence  has  per- 
mitted to  take  place  respecting  American  independency;  but  they 
object  strongly  to  setting  the  State  so  much  above  the  Church,  for  which 
you  bear  much  of  the  blame  on  account  of  your  old  pamphlet,*  and 

*  "  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States  considered,  etc.,"  a  tract 
misunderstood  at  the  time  and  very  unjustifiably  used  by  certain  low  Churchmen  since. 
Dr.  White  took  pains  in  a  note  to  his  charge  of  1807,  to  put  himself  right  by  showing 
that  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  tract  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Pennsylvania — so  far  as 
the  events  of  the  Revolutionary  War  could  be  anticipated — was  in  danger  of  annihila- 
tion, if  we  had  to  wait  for  consecration  by  the  English  Bishops.  The  moment  that 
there  came  a  prospect  of  peace  he  called  in  and  destroyed  all  copies  of  the  tract  that 
he  could  easily  procure.  lie  also  left  a  manuscript  produced,  in  fac  simile  quite  lately, 
by  his  great-grandson,  Mr.  T.  H.  Montgomery — a  gentleman,  I  may  add,  to  whom  our 
Church  is  much  indebted  for  illustrations  of  its  history — in  which  he  again  vindicates 
Jiimself  against  the  ideas  which  some  low  churchman,  by  reprinting  his  tract,  sought 


1 86  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPOA'DEXCE    OF   THE  [l/S6 

strenuous  efforts  at  our  last  general  Convention  to  bring  that  clause 
forward  respecting  the  control  of  the  laity  over  the  appointment  of 
bishops,  and  which  may  be  made  a  handle  of  to  prejudice  many  against 
other  parts  of  our  proceedings. 

My  learned  but  zealous  high  church  little  friend  and  relation  (as  he 
says),  Mr.  Smith,  of  Somerset,  writes  me  as  follows — which  perhaps  he 
did  not  yet  wish  me  to  communicate  to  you,  although  I  believe  he  cares 
not  who  sees  what  he  writes,  yet  you  will  keep  it  to  yourself  till  I  can 
see  him,  which  will  be  in  two  weeks — but  I  lose  the  thread  of  my  dis- 
course— I  say  Mr.  Smith,  who  says  he  has  just  received  a  long  letter 
from  Bishop  Seabury  on  the  same  subject,  with  an  account  of  their 
Connecticut  Constitution,  writes  thus  : 

I  have  been  looking  all  this  while  for  a  sight  of  the  Prayer  Book  altered,  and  by  a 
letter  from  Dr.  White  I  understand  it  is  hurrying  on.  A  passage  in  that  letter  I  did 
not  and  do  not  now  perceive  the  propriety  of — it  is  this — "  I  suppose  you  have  heard 
of  our  application  to  the  English  Bishops,  the  Convention  was  far  from  wishing  to  show 
any  disrespect  to  the  Scots  Episcopacy,  etc." 

And  so  he  gives  me  a  long  extract  of  your  letter,  and  then  writes  as 
follows  : 

These  modes  of  proceeding  may  be  consentaneous  with  the  wisdom  of  this  world, 
bat  ill  accords  with  that  wisdom,  who  hath  said — My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world — 
Ye  are  not  of  the  world,  etc.  To  the  account  the  Dr.  (White)  gives  of  Bishop  Sea- 
bury's  failure  (as  he  is  pleased  to  call  it)  I  shall  only  say  thus  much.  That  the  case 
of  the  Church  in  all  the  States,  or  in  any  individual  one  at  present,  is  perfectly  as  a 
single  diocese  without  a  centre  of  unity,  the  presbyters  of  which  have  an  unquestion- 
able right  to  nominate  a  bishop,  without  the  interference  of  any  diocese  having  a 
bishop  or  not  having  one.  Bishop  Seabury's  failure  then,  on  ecclesiastical  principles, 
is  not  owing  to  his  being  sent  by  presbyters  acting  in  their  private  capacity — Certificates 
from  the  ruling  powers  is  without  a  precedent  in  any  Christian  Church  in  the  universe. 
This  is  fixing  the  Church  under  the  power  of  the  State  for  ever  and  ever  with  a  wit- 
ness. It  is  making  Jesus  Christ  make  obeisance  to  Ccesar ! !  !  Reigning  powers  grant- 
ing certificates!  Tell  it  not  in  Gath  !  publish  it  not  to  the  world  lest  we  publish  our 
own  infamy.  The  Church  in  America  to  derive  her  power,  nay  her  existence  from 
temporal  auth ,.,/v — perish  the  idea!  Her  charter  from  the  hands  of  the  eternal  runs 
thus:  "As  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  etc."  "All  power  is  given  to  me  in  E7caven."  Let 
us  render  unto  C«sar,  etc.  The  Church  and  the  State  are  by  God  constituted  separate, 
and  let  no  man  join  what  he  hath  separated.  The  sword  of  the  Cherubim  and  Cxsar's 
are  of  different  metals,  the  one  pointing  to  the  victim  which  should  prevent  the  effu- 
sion of  human  blood  by  his  own,  the  other  occasioning  multitudes  of  garments  rolled 
in  blood  and  the  infinite  number  of  the  slain.  "  May  the  Church  rest  always  on  its 
own  true  foundation  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  throne  of  Empire  on  its  proper  basis — Mercy. 
Adieu.     May  God  direct  you  and  those  who  sit  in  Moses'  seat,  etc." 

to  put  upon  him.  His  plan  acknowledged  the  necessity  of  Episcopal  ordination  in 
every  case  where  it  could  be  obtained;  but  until  it  could  be,  proposed  to  follow  its  form, 
awaiting  the  consummation  of  the  substance.  Dr.  Smith,  it  is  certain,  held  to  the  same 
ideas  that  Dr.  White  did  on  the  subject  of  ordination.  See  my  former  volume,  page 
402.  And  it  is  equally  certain  that  those  views  can  be  justified  by  some  of  the  most 
authoritative  writers  of  the  Church  of  England.  See  Appendix,  No.  IV. — II.  W.  S. 


1 7 36]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.   D.  1 87 

You  will  meditate  on  all  this  and  do  with  the  proposed  addition  in 
the  preface   as   you  think   bust,  only  do   not   delay  it   for  sending   me 

proofs In  the  paragraph  of  the  preface  beginning  "When  in 

the  course  of  divine  Providence,  it  pleased  Almighty  God  that  these 
American  States,  etc.,"  a  few  lines  afterwards  you  have  the  words 
"these  States"  a  second  time,  dele  the  repetition  of  "these  States." 
You  will  supply  all  the  omissions  of  words,  etc.,  in  this  letter,  for  as 
usual  I  put  off  sitting  down  to  write  you  till  within  an  hour  of  the  post 


Yours,  etc., 

Wm.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  March,  17S6. 

With  respect  to  our  friend  Mr.  Hopkinson's  hymns,  that  for  first 
Thursday  in  November  is  only  another  arrangement  of  some  of  the 
verses  of  the  same  psalms  which  stand  in  my  collection  for  the  same 
day,  and  whether  for  the  better  or  worse,  you  only  can  tell,  as  I  have  no 
copy  of  those  I  sent  you  before,  and  to  which  you  have  given  your 
general  approbation.  If  this  hymn  of  Mr.  Hopkinson's  collection  is  all 
he  intends  for  first  Thursday  of  November,  it  is  very  defective,  or  at 
least,  as  there  will  be  psalmody  twice  if  not  oftener  on  that  day,  we 
should  have  more  than  one  hymn  ;  and  I  leave  the  matter  wholly  with 
you,  if  the  business  is  not  already  finished,  being  persuaded  that  you 
will  not  break  in  upon  the  arrangement  I  had  (with  great  application) 
made  without  some  good  purpose  in  view. 

As  to  the  Fourth  of  July.  The  hymn  offered  by  Mr.  Hopkinson  is  in 
many  parts  far  too  flat  for  the  great  occasion,  and  no  way  equal  to  what 
I  have  taken  from  Psalms  81  and  68.  Thus — War  darkening  all  the 
land — God  brings  nations  to  decay — Willing  mercy  flew — How  good  the 
Lord  has  been — and  also  in  the  hymn  for  November — "Grass  for  our 
cattle  to  devour'" — although  taken  from  Tate  and  Brady,  does  not  read 
clever  :  it  represents  the  poor  animals  as  ravenous  and  dying  of  hunger, 
so  as  to  devour  zHS.  before  them,  instead  of  feeding  happily  and  contented/y 
upon  plenty. 

The  lines  from  Psalm  81  (for  July  4th),  which  are  in  the  collection  I 
sent  you,  ending  thus — 

Your  Ancestors  with  wrongs  oppressed, 

To  me  for  aid  did  call, 
With  pity  I  their  Sufferings  saw — 

And  set  them  free  from  all — 

have  far  more  in  them  than  all  that  is  proposed  in  their  room  (if  it  is  to 
be  in  their  room)  or  if  to  be  added,  would  be  superfluity.  There  can 
be  no  objection  to  the  words  "  with  wrongs  oppressed" — for  it  is  stronger 


188  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [l/86 

still  in  Mr.  Hopkinson's,  viz.  :  "  to  rescue  from  oppressive  rage" — and 
in  the  former,  the  beautiful  reference  to  "Ancestors"  will  ages  hence 
continue  to  be  used  with  a  noble  propriety.  However,  if  these  hymns 
can  come  in  without  tearing  the  whole  texture  of  the  others,  and  if  it 
be  Mr.  Hopkinson's  wish  to  have  them,  I  am  satisfied,  for  unless  I  had 
the  whole  before  me,  as  proposed  to  be  altered,  I  cannot  take  upon  me 
to  judge  properly,  and  must  leave  that  to  you.  Only  I  wish  you  to  save 
an  exact  copy,  or  the  whole  originals  of  the  hymns  as  I  sent  them  to 
you. 

As  we  have  kept  the  collects,  epistles  and  gospels,  for  about  twenty- 
two  holy  days,  beginning  with  St.  Andrew,  and  ending  with  All  Saints', 
it  will  be  necessary  to  mark  in  the  calendar,  as  heretofore,  the  days  of 
the  month,  on  which  these  holy  days  fall,  and  to  retain  the  table  of 
lessons  for  those  clays,  as  the  churches  which  think  it  proper  will  still  be 
as  ready  to  observe  those  days,  or  some  of  them,  as  occasion  may 
require. 

I  know  you  have  taken  great  pains  with  the  table  of  lessons,  and  I  am 
persuaded  I  shall  have  much  reason  to  approve  of  what  you  have  done  ; 
which  will  be  best  considered  when  the  whole  is  taken  together ;  and  it 
would  be  wrong  to  judge  by  piece-meal,  of  anything  which  the  necessity 
of  the  case  has  made  the  work  of  one  alone,  and  on  which  his  particular 
attention  hath  been  bestowed,  taking  the  whole  in  one  large  and 
consistent  view. 

The  same  is  the  case  with  respect  to  the  preface,  on  which,  as  a  most 
material  part  of  our  trust  and  commission,  I  had  determined  from  the 
beginning  to  bestow  every  convenient  and  possible  attention,  and  it 
gives  me  the  highest  satisfaction  that  you  "  like  it  both  in  the  plan  and 
execution."  I  have  no  exact  copy  of  it,  only  notes  and  sketches  of  the 
principal  parts,  so  that  I  can  make  no  use  of  your  reference  to  pages  in 
your  remarks;  but  still  can  answer  them  in  substance,  so  as  to  enable 
you  to  correct  it,  if  not  too  late  for  the  press.  In  my  last  from  Balti- 
more I  wished  you  to  attend  to  punctuation,  etc.,  both  in  the  hymns 
and  preface,  as  I  had  not  read  either  of  them  over  with  a  view  either 
to  the  niceties  of  language,  grammar  or  stops.  I  proceed  to  your 
remarks.* 

1.  I  think  the  little  quotation  from  the  Council  of  Trent,  exceeding 
proper  to  show  that  all  churches  agree  with  the  Church  of  England  in 
the  doctrine  of  her  prefaces,  respecting  the  necessity  of  alterations, 
according  to  times  and  exigencies.  In  Maryland  we  have  many  Roman 
Catholics,  who  are  even  already  questioning  some  of  our  weak  members, 
and  charging  us  with  novelties,  and  still  further  departures  from  the 
Catholic  faith.  The  answer  is  ready  in  the  quotation  from  a  Council 
of  their  own  Church,  especially  that  of  Trent. 

*  See  these,  supra,  pp.  180-181. 


1786]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  189 

2d.  Protestant  Episcopal  Churches  should  be  in  the  singular  num- 
ber; and  yet  if  all  our  New  England  brethren  should  not  join  us, 
they  may  say  we  take  too  much  on  us  to  call  seven  or  eight  States 
the  whole  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  America.  I  do  not  remem- 
ber the  connection  of  the  paragraph;  but  if  it  be  churches,  in  the 
plural,  some  such  idea  must  have  been  in  my  head;  or  it  is  a  mistake 
of  the  pen.  Make  this  and  other  like  things  consistent  according  to 
your  best  judgment;  for  I  know  you  will  not  Aitkenise*  anything, 
being  too  judicious  to  put  a  patch  that  would  not  consort  with  the  gar- 
ment at  large. 

3d.  Page  12.  The  apology  for  not  revising  the  Collects  may  be 
omitted  in  this  preface.  Yet  not  for  fear  of  hinting  the  probability  of 
further  reviews,  but  because  there  were  other  things  besides  the  Collects 
which  the  Church  of  England  at  and  before  the  Revolution  had  in  con- 
templation to  review,  and  which  we  have  not  yet  touched  upon;  and 
therefore  every  reader  may  be  left  to  his  own  conclusion,  as  to  the 
necessity  of  future  reviews,  by  a  comparison  of  our  book  on  the  whole, 
with  the  intended  alterations  at  the  Revolution,  and  I  think  the  credit 
of  our  work  will  rise  on  the  comparison. 

Ibid — You  may  say  "The  service  is  arranged  so  as  to  stand  as  nearly 
as  possible  in  the  order  wherein  it  is  appointed  to  be  read,  without  the 
necessity  of  turning  backwards  and  forwards,  etc." 

Page  13.  Say  "for  the  greater  facility  of  choosing  Psalms  adapted  to 
particular  subjects  and  occasions  of  divine  worship;"  or  some  such 
amendment. 

Page  14 — in  the  note — Bishop  Burnet,  being  a  great  name,  and  the 
expositor  of  the  articles,  seems  to  me  very  proper  to  be  mentioned,  and 
I  should  think,  it  being  only  a  note,  there  is  no  need  of  leaving  it  out. 
There  is  no  alteration  made  in  the  whole  book,  which  is  like  to  create 
so  much  difficulty  as  the  omission  of  the  descent  into  hell;  and  yet  wher- 
ever I  have  had  occasion  to  explain  the  matter  as  in  the  note  alluded 
to,  it  seems  to  have  given  content.  I  would  not  give  any  reasons  for 
omitting  the  two  other  creeds.  The  Athanasian  seems  freely  to  be  parted 
with  on  all  hands,  and  as  to  the  Nicene  I  would  say  nothing  concerning 
it  in  this  edition  of  the  Prayer  Book;  because  I  believe  some  whole 
States  will  agree  with  the  three  New  England  States,  in  having  it  inserted 
at  their  next  Convention,  and  left  optional  either  to  be  used, or  to  use  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  although  not  both  in  the  same  Morning  or  Evening  Ser- 
vice; while  others  (I  fear  much  from  Virginia)  will  be  for  no  creeds  at  all, 
and  also  for  striking  out  the  Trinitarian  introduction  to  the  Litany.  Yet, 
I  hope,  calmness  and  sound  argument,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  may 
reconcile  all,  and  preserve  the  unity  of  the  faith  in  the  bond  of  peace. 

*  A  reference,  doubtless,  to  Robert  Aitken,  a  Philadelphia  printer  of  some  note  at 
that  time. 


I90  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l7^ 

Page  15.  "Son"  of  the  Church  maybe  made  "member,"  and  I  had 
no  more  idea  of  excluding  the  "daughters"  of  the  Church,  than  I  have 
every  Sunday,  when  I  say  "Dearly  beloved  brethren."  Something  may 
be  added,  in  a  few  words,  in  acknowledgment  to  the  Church  of  Ireland, 
for  the  office  adopted  from  her.     You  will  know  where  to  insert  it. 

I  hope,  now,  my  good  Sir,  we  have  wholly  done;  and  it  will  ever 
give  me  pleasure  to  testify  the  great  satisfaction  I  have  had  in  the  pro- 
gress of  this  laborious  work,  and  how  much  it  hath  been  made  easy  to 
me  (amidst  the  avocations  I  have  had,  and  my  distance  from  the  press) 
by  the  candor  and  judgment  which  you  have  shown,  the  punctuality  of 
your  correspondence,  and  the  great  pains  you  have  taken  in  digesting, 
transcribing,  examining,  correcting  the  press,  etc.,  etc. 

I  wish  to  know  whether  Mr.  Hall's  calculation  of  the  price  of  his 
work  and  paper  was  not  on  twenty  sheets,  and  whether  there  will  be 
any  addition  to  the  price  on  his  account  ?  Or  on  the  bookbinder's?  If 
none  the  only  additional  price  will  be  the  engraving  and  printing  the 
tunes.  You  know  it  is  part  of  our  appointment  to  fix  the  price  of  the 
book,  direct  the  distribution  thereof,  take  care  that  it  be  sold  only  for 
money  and  the  profits  applied  to  the  widows  and  fatherless.  I  cannot 
think  a  dollar  will  be  too  much.  Had  we  suffered  any  printer  here  to 
do  it  on  his  own  account,  he  would  have  asked  a  much  greater  price. 
You  know  what  they  charged  for  small  imported  Prayer  Books,  and  the 
very  smallest  School  Books.  Yet  for  the  reasons  you  suggest,  I  wish  it 
to  be  as  cheap  as  possible,  so  as  to  have  some  savings;  for  you  may  be 
assured  that  there  will  be  money  lost,  or  with  great  difficulty  col- 
lected out  of  the  hands  of  some  to  whom  the  books  may  be  sent  for 
distribution  or  sale. 

I  had  almost  forgotten  your  objection  to — 

"The  spoil  of  armies  once  their  dread," 

as  applied  to  the  Ascension.  You  know  it  is  Tate  and  Brady's,  and 
hath  long  stood  among  our  psalms,  but  is  easily  altered  thus,  which  I 
think  will  bring  it  nearer  to  the  evangelical  sense  as  well  as  sublimity 
of  the  original,  which  is  Psalm  68,  v.  18  : 

In  triumph,  Thou,  ascending  high, 

Hast  gifts  received  for  sinful  men, 
Ani  captive  led  captivity, 

That  God  may  dwell  on  earth  again ! 

This  I  think  will  be  very  proper  for  the  Ascension. 

I  have  preserved  and  endorsed  all  your  letters,  and  wish  you  to  do 
the  same  with  mine.     They  ma}'  refresh  our  memories  at  some  future 


1/86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  IQI 

day,  or  show  our  children  after  us  what  honest  and  conscientious  labor 
we  bestowed  on  the  work  committed  to  us. 

Yours, 

Wm.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  March  8,  17S6. 

DtarSir:  ....  I  send  you  the  sheets  finished;  besides  which  there 
is  another  form  prepared  for  press  containing  the  residue  of  the  psalms 
and  the  first  Nativity  Hymn:  besides  which  other  hymns  are  prepared 
in  a  detached  way,  but  cannot  be  put  in  form  for  want  of  quadrats  re- 
maining in  the  preceding  forms;  as  these  latter  cannot  be  broken  until 
the  receipt  of  some  paper  hourly  expected  from  mill.  We  have  not 
yet  suffered  for  want  of  it.  I  lament  our  delays  but  cannot  help  them. 
I  will  review  the  hymns  to  which  your  remarks  or  Mr.  Hopkinson's 
relate  and  endeavor  to  settle  them  to  your  satisfaction.  The  only 
liberty  (,so  far  as  I  recollect)  that  I  have  taken  with  the  others  is  the 
leaving  out  some  verses  in  one  of  the  hymns  at  sea  respecting  the  blas- 
pheming after  a  storm  which  appeared  to  me  too  much  like  the  language 
— "/ am  not  as  this  Publican."  If  you  dislike  this  omission,  I  can  still 
retain  the  verses.  I  have  also  put  the  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  etc., 
immediately  after  the  psalms  before  the  notification  that  the  hymns 
begin:  as  it  is  meant  to  be  a  part  of  a  psalm  to  convert  it  into  a  Chris- 
tian hymn,  but  not  itself  commonly  known  under  the  term  hymn. 

The  paper  I  have  prepared  for  the  press  relative  to  the  holy  days  has 
the  extra  holidays  just  as  you  desire.  You  have  omitted  answering  me 
on  a  very  important  question  respecting  the  calendar  lessons.  On  the 
one  hand  I  find  that  by  our  taking  it  in  hand,  these  three  important 
points  may  be  gained:  the  shortening  of  the  daily  service,  the  getting 
rid  of  the  Apocrypha,  and  the  omitting  two  or  three  lessons  very  offen- 
sive (in  public  reading)  to  modest  ears.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  not 
within  the  letter  of  our  appointment,  so  that  I  should  not  like  to  accom- 
plish what  I  think  best  on  this  subject  without  your  concurrence. 

I  shall  continue  the  preface  to  your  satisfaction.  As  to  the  punctua- 
tion of  this  and  the  hymns,  I  had  presumed  from  a  general  glance  over 
the  points  that  you  had  attended  to  them;  but  if  any  appear  improper 
in  the  proof-sheets  I  will  correct  them. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  that  you  are  satisfied  with  the  execution 
of  my  part  of  the  trust  on  this  occasion;  especially  as  I  can  with  great 
sincerity  make  a  similar  acknowledgment ;  and  as  I  shall  alway  allow 
you  more  credit  on  the  score  of  judgment  than  you  ought  to  allow  me, 
so  also  there  is  nothing  you  can  say  on  that  of  candor  and  temper  which 
I  shall  not  as  freely  and  fully  say  of  you. 

You  are  right  as  to  Mr.  Hall's  estimate  of  sheets,  and  as  to  the  price 
of  binding  nothing  more  has  past.  Mr.  Woodhouse  has  half  the  num- 
ber prepared  for  the  covers  and  is  impatient  to  begin. 


192  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

If  you  are  clear  as  to  the  proposed  price  I  have  no  objection. 

It  now  becomes  a  matter  of  serious  consideration,  whether  we  shall 
avail  ourselves  of  the  copyright,  for  which  (as  I  am  told  by  a  gentleman 
interested  on  these  subjects)  there  are  laws  lately  passed  in  other  States, 
making  ten  States  in  all.  I  think  the  mode  of  doing  it  should  be  for 
Messrs.  Hall  and  Sellers  to  enter  it  in  their  names,  first  executing  to  us 
an  acknowledgment  of  trust,  and  so  leaving  the  matter  to  the  next  Con- 
vention, which  may  order  a  conveyance  of  the  right  to  the  several  cor- 
porations for  widows,  etc. 

I  will  send  you  by  the  next  post  my  opinion  of  the  manner  in  which 
we  should  proceed  in  regard  to  the  sale  of  the  books;  and  shall  only  at 
present  say  on  that  head,  that  as  the  Maryland  Convention  is  the  first, 
all  the  copies  that  can  be  got  ready  for  their  use  shall  be  devoted  to 
them  in  preference  to  any  demands  on  the  spot. 

I  am,  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

P.  S. — I  shall  carefully  and  with  pleasure  observe  your  desire  respect- 
ing preserving  your  letters;  but  had  I  foreseen  you  would  have  be- 
stowed the  same  attention  on  mine,  I  should  not  have  sent  you  such 
hasty  scrawls. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  am  happy  to  find  that  yours  of  the  8th  instant  leaves 
me  nothing  to  write  by  this  post,  except  to  repeat  my  solicitations  that 
the  printers  may  be  pressed  to  use  all  the  dispatch  possible  with  the  re- 
mainder of  the  book;  otherwise  it  will  come  too  late  for  our  Maryland 
Convention;  and  it  is  of  considerable  consequence  that  it  should  have 
a  ready  reception,  with  the  sanction  of  the  Church  at  large  in  this  State 
upon  its  first  appearance.  Send  me  by  this  post  as  many  of  the  remain- 
ing sheets  and  proofs,  as  you  can  get  from  the  press. 

I  imagined  that  in  my  last  I  had  given  what  you  would  consider  as  a 
sufficient  answer  to  your  "important  questions"  concerning  the  calen- 
dar, on  which  subject  you  had  also  written  in  some  former  letters.  The 
arranging  the  calendar  in  the  manner  you  mention,  and  which  I  had 
approved  of  when  I  saw  you  last  in  Philadelphia,  is  a  work  of  great 
labor,  requiring  the  reading  over  almost  the  whole  Bible,  and  many 
collations  and  comparisons  of  different  portions  thereof.  You  had 
taken  that  labor  upon  you  and  I  am  assured  have  bestowed  much  atten- 
tion and  judgment  upon  it,  while  I  have  been  either  engaged  in  some 
other  parts  of  the  work,  or  called  from  home,  as  I  have  been  for  the 
greatest  part  of  the  past  winter.  Unless,  therefore,  I  could  have  time 
to  read  all  the  proposed  portions  of  Scripture,  with  the  same  attention 
which  you  have  bestowed  (for  which  time  is  not  left,  even  if  I  had  an 


I786]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D  1 93 

exact  copy  of  the  calendar  as  proposed)  it  would  be  wrong  for  the  rea- 
sons given  in  my  last  letter  to  interpose,  lest  by  judging  of  that  by 
parts,  which  you  had  under  review  in  the  whole,  I  should  injure  the 
texture,  etc.  'These  sentiments  I  wished  you  to  consider  as  an  answer 
to  your  question  concerning  the  calendar;  being  sensible  also  that  you 
must  have  been  possessed  of  the  same  way  of  judging  and  giving  your 
approbation  to  some  parts  which  fell  to  my  share  in  carrying  on  our 
work.     By  just  hinting  to  you  not  to  forget  the  place  of  the  Apostles', 

etc.,  or  extra  holy  days,  I  imagined  that  you  would  conclude 

that  I  could  depend  fully  on  your  execution  of part,  viz.,  the 

of  lessons,   as  you   have   bestowed    so   much   attention   upon 

them.  Yet,  still  I  apprehend  that  I  have  not  with  sufficient  clearness, 
expressed  what  I  wished  about  inserting  in  the  calendar  the  days  to 
which  I  referred  in  my  last.  I  did  not  mean  that  they  should  stand  in 
a  separate  table  or  paper,  but  in  the  monthly  calendar,  as  they  now 
stand.  Thus  in  January,  the  Circumcision  is  1st  day,  Epiphany  6th, 
Conversion  of  St.  Paul  the  25th.  These  are  all  which  should  stand  for 
that  month.  The  rest,  as  Lucian  P.,  Hilary  Bishop,  Prisca  V.,  and 
other  legendaries,  Fabian,  Agnes,  Vincent,  and  even  King  Charles 
Martyr,  all  expunged,  and  thirty  of  the  rest,  of  the  other  months,  in 
order  that  when  the  minister  casts  his  eye  on  the  monthly  calendars,  he 
may  be  reminded  when  any  of  those  days  happen  on  Sunday,  or  on 
Prayer  Days,  that  he  may  take  the  Collects  and  Lessons,  with  the  Epis- 
tles and  Gospels  accordingly;  if  he  thinks  it  proper  ox  desired  by  his 
hearers,  especially  the  female  part,  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays.  I 
think  we  must  not  make  our  service  too  naked,  nor  will  these  days,  viz., 
St.  Paul,  the  Johns,  Andrew,  etc.,  be  parted  with  all  at  once  nor  does 
it  seem  necessary.  A  proper  use  of  those  days  tends  to  edification, 
and  gives  some  further  knowledge  of  the  History  of  the  Bible. 

On  casting  my  eye  on  the  singing  psalms,  I  perceive  some  typo- 
graphical errors.     Psalm  28,  v.  2. 

When  thou  to  seek  thy  glorious  face 
Thou  kindly,  etc. 

The  first  "thou"  is  "us "  in  the  original,  and  would  be  better  "me." 
As  it  now  stands,  the  first  thou  makes  nonsense.  Again,  Psalm  38,  v. 
1st,  line  third  wants  afoot,  viz.,  the  word  "the"  before  cherubs.  Plow 
many  little  errors  typographical  of  this  kind  may  be,  I  have  not  ex- 
amined ;  but  will  spend  a  few  hours  in  looking  over  the  whole  book, 
that  if  the  errors  be  of  any  consideration,  we  may  put  a  little  table  of 
corrections  at  the  end.  Psalm  21  does  not  seem  to  stand  under  any 
metre  at  all.  I  see  some  parts  of  the  psalms  appropriated  for  particular 
days  as  hymns,  as  104 — also  some  verses  applicable  only  to  the  cruci- 
fixion, are  in  the  general  collection — which  will  make  some  repetitions; 
but  as  they  are  but  a  few  verses  I  would  not  have  anything  omitted  in 


194  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1786 

the  hymn  on  this  account.     I  will  this  week  if  possible,  look  further  at 
the  calendar,  but  do  not  delay  anything  on  that  account.     I  know  I  shall 

•approve  what  you  have  done,  as  will  the not  exactly  within 

the  letter  of  our  authority. 

N.  B. — The  first  lesson  for  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent,  on  reading  it, 
appeared  to  hurt  me  in  some  parts  the  Sunday  before  last.  It  is  an  in- 
structive lesson  on  the  whole,  if  we  could  leave  out  part  of  a  chapter, 
or  pass  over  verses,  viz.,  where  Lot  offers  his  virgin  daughters  to  the  men 
to  do  with  them  as  they  pleased.  If  the  calendar  is  in  proof,  pray 
send  it,  but  still  I  beg  no  stop  on  my  account. 

I  must  conclude  hastily  and  am  as  ever, 

Yours, 

Wm.  Smith. 

P.  S. — My  letters  have  been  as  much  scrawled  in  haste  as  yours;  but 
both  of  us  may  review  and  correct  any  hasty  escapes  of  the  pen,  etc. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  March  15th,  1786. 

To  the  best  of  my  recollection  the  inclosed  are  the  proper  continua- 
tion of  the  sheets:  if  not,  and  there  be  a  chasm,  you  will  inform  me 
and  I  will  supply  it  by  next  post. 

Besides  these,  I  have  corrected  two  proof-sheets  for  the  press,  so  that 
I  expect  we  shall  have  the  hymns  fully  composed  some  time  to-morrow. 

Then  going  backwards  from  the  Morning  Prayer,  we  have  a  form 
composed  containing  the  tables  for  finding  the  holy  days.  Two  more 
forms  will  be  taken  up  with  the  Tables  of  Feasts  and  Fasts,  of  proper 
lessons,  and  of  the  lessons  according  to  the  calendar.  The  preface  will 
occupy  another  form,  besides  part  of  it  being  thrown  forward  to  be  on 
the  same  form  or  part  of  form  with  the  Title  Page.  In  short,  by  this 
day  week,  I  hope  to  have  the  whole  composed :  which  being  done,  they 
may  finish  at  their  leisure  the  press  work  of  these  few  remaining  forms, 
only  striking  off  some  for  the  bookbinder  to  begin. 

There  is  nothing  you  mention  as  you  wish  (in  yours  of  this  day)  con- 
cerning the  calendar,  but  what  is  prepared  agreeably  to  it.  I  should 
not  have  troubled  you  further  on  this  subject,  but  that  I  understood 
what  you  had  before  written,  as  applying  to  the  proper  lessons  only. 
But  the  chapter  you  mention,  I  have  thought  best  to  omit  wholly. 

I  am  sorry  for  the  typographical  errors  and  hope  you  will  perform 
your  promise  of  going  over  the  whole  book.  Such  slips  will  easier 
attract  your  eye  than  mine,  which  has  already  run  over  these  sheets, 
both  in  the  preparation  and  in  the  execution. 

I  am  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 
Dr.  Smith. 


I786]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  19$ 

P.  S. — I  have  not  yet  heard  a  word  from  England,  but  hope  that  the 
January  packet  will  bring  some  information. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  April  1,  1786. 
Dear  Sir  :  Mr.  Woodhouse  will  send  you  by  this  opportunity  six 
setts  of  the  Proposed  Book  including  (as  I  expect)  all  except  the  re- 
viewed forms.  The  preface  will  not  be  in  its  proper  form;  but  as  I 
intend  sending  by  the  next  post  the  sheets  necessary  to  complete  the 
book,  you  will  please  to  leave  directions  at  Annapolis  concerning  them, 
if  you  should  leave  it  before  their  arrival. 

I  beg  my  affectionate  compliments  to  such  of  our  brethren  at  the 
Convention  as  I  have  the  pleasure  of  knowing,  and  am 

Yours,  affectionately, 

Wj\i.  White. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  Maryland,  April  3,  1786. 
Dear  Sir:  ....  On  the  other  sheet  you  have  some  corrections, 
which  I  wish  in  the  preface  and  which  I  think  will  appear  to  you  for  the 
better,  if  you  can  make  out  to  read  them.  Send  me  title  page,  calen- 
dar, preface,  etc.,  by  this  post.  The  printers  need  only  work  a  few  of 
the  titles  and  prefaces,  till  you  hear  from  me  next  week.  A  few  will 
keep  the  bookbinder  at  work. 

I  am  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  Smith. 


Corrections.     .     .     .     Preface. 

Paragraph  1st.  For  the  words  "whatever  cannot  be  clearly  detcr- 
mined,"  say  "  what  cannot,  etc." 

Paragraph  2d.   For  "laid  down  as  a  rule"  say  "laid  it  down,  etc." 

Paragraph  4th.  After  the  words  "too  much  stiffness  in  refusing,"  in- 
sert, "and"  so  as  to  read,  "too  much  stiffness  in  refusing  and  too  much 
easiness  in  admitting,  etc." 

In  the  paragraph  beginning  "3d.  For  a  more  perfect  rendering, "  after 
the  word  "/iturgy"  and  before  the  word  "made"  in  the  parenthesis 
insert  "and,"  so  as  to  read  "are  inserted  into  the  liturgy  (and  made  a 
part  of  the  daily  service)." 

In  the  6th  quaere.  Beginning  "Whether  in  particular  a  psalm  or 
anthem  should  not  be  adapted  and  sung,  etc.,"  insert  the  word  "to" 
after  adapted,  and  read  "adapted  to,  and  sung  at  the  celebration,  etc." 

In  the  8th  quaere.  Relating  to  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  after  the 
word  "especially"  strike  out  the  word  "as"  and  insert  "unless,"  and 
it  will  read  "especially  unless  the  first  design  of  inserting  this,  viz..,  as 


I96  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1786 

introductory  to  the  communion,  etc.,"  putting  a  comma  after  the  word 
communion. 

In  the  nth  quaere.  The  word  "Baptism"  should  not  be  distinguished 
by  italics  from  the  other  offices  which  are  printed  in  Roman. 

There  are  several  other  things  of  this  kind,  which  neither  the  printer 
nor  we  perhaps  have  now  time  to  notice. 

In  the  paragraph  beginning  "But  while  these  alterations,  etc.,"  alter 
the  whole  so  as  to  read  thus : 

But  while  these  alterations  were  in  review  before  the  late  Convention,  they  could 
not  but  with  gratitude  to  God,  embrace  the  happy  occasion  which  was  offered  to  them 
(uninfluenced  and  unrestrained  by  any  worldly  authority  whatsoever)  to  take  a  further 
review  of  the  public  service,  and  to  propose  to  the  Church  at  large  such  other  altera- 
tions and  amendments  therein  as  might  be  deemed  expedient,  whether  consisting,  etc. 
(as  it  now  stands). 

In  the  next  paragraph — in  the  last  line — strike  out  the  words  "at 
that  time ' '  and  read  ' '  thought  reasonable  and  expedient. ' '  In  the  follow- 
ing paragraph,  "speaking  of  the  'Glory  to  God  on  high'"  after  the 
"etc."  insert  "which  may  he  said,  unless"  before  the  words  "when  it 
can  be  properly  sung,"  the  whole  to  read  thus,  "Glory  to  God  on  high, 
etc.,  which  may  be  said,  unless  when  it  can  be  properly  sung."  In  the 
paragraph  which  speaks  of  July  4th,  for  "Blessing"  insert  "Blessings 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty." 

In  the  last  paragraph,  strike  out  so  as  to  make  it  read  "be  received 
and  examined,  etc.,"  as  it  now  stands,  to  the  end. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  April  5,  1786. 

Dear  Sir  : Several  of  the  corrections  which  you  propose 

in  the  preface,  I  had  previously  made !     The  rest  shall  also  be  made. 

I  hope  you  will  not  think  of  altering  the  title  page,  after  some  are 
binding.  It  will  be  attended  with  the  following  inconveniences  :  1st. 
Mr.  Smith  must  give  two  certificates  different  from  each  other,  for  the 
act  requires  the  title  to  appear  in  the  certificate.*  2d.  Several  will 
have  gone  (before  the  change)  into  quarters,  where  you  will  not  wish 
such  inconsistency  to  appear — to  Boston  for  instance  where  the  Con- 
vention of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  meet  on  the  27th  instant — 
and  wish  to  have  the  whole  before  them.  3d.  The  persons  who  shall 
purchase  the  first  copies  will  think  themselves  defrauded.  And  after 
all,  there  is  nothing  that  can  be  so  easily  amended  in  future  editions, 
the  very  nature  of  the  present  making  a  peculiarity  necessary  in  the 
title. 

I   expect   to   have  this   evening   the  second   page,  with   Mr.  Smith's 

*  Dr.  White  here  refers  to  the  certificate  of  copyright  by  J.  B.  Smith,  prefixed  to  the 
Proposed  Book. 


1 7 86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  1 9/ 

certificate  and  the  table  of  contents,  and  to-morrow  morning  the  re- 
viewed forms.     The  intervention  of  the  newspaper  has  delayed  them. 

I  am  yours,  etc. 

Wm.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  April  g,  17S6. 

Dear  Sir: We  had  a  considerable  majority  of  all   our 

clergy  (not  many  of  the  laity)  at  our  Convention,  and  have  agreed  to 
receive  and  recommend  to  public  use  the  new  book,  as  far  as  the  power 
of  our  State  Church  may  be  supposed  to  extend  in  our  present  unorgan- 
ized State.  A  few  alterations  are  proposed  to  be  offered  to  the  next 
Convention.  The  Nicene  Creed  to  follow  the  Apostles',  with  an  "or 
this.'"  A  little  alteration,  or  rather  discretionary  power  in  the  admin- 
istration of  baptism,  where  the  minister  may  have  great  numbers  to 
baptize  together,  and  an  addition  to  the  consecration  prayer  at  the  holy 
sacrament,  for  a  blessing  on  the  elements,  which  being  only  a  few 
words,  and  those  extremely  proper,  and  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  all 
other  Protestant  Churches,  as  well  as  what  was  in  the  first  liturgy  of 
Edward  VI.  hath  perfectly  reconciled  Mr.  Smith*  to  our  service  and 
will  prevent  any  further  division  between  us  and  the  numbers  of  clergy 
coming  among  us  from  Bishop  Seabury  and  the  Scots'  Church. 

In  the  Scots'  and  Edward  VI's  liturgy  the  prayer  was  exceptionable 
and  leaning  much  to  transubstantiation  in  these  words:  "Vouchsafe  to 
bless  and  sanctify  these  thy  creatures  of  bread  and  wine,  that  they  may 
be  unto  us  the  body  and  blood,  etc."  The  Scots'  still  stronger,  viz., 
"that  they  may  become  unto  us  the  body  and  blood."  The  alteration  as 
we  propose  it  is  thus,  beginning  at  the  words  in  the  consecration  prayer, 
"Hear  us,  O  merciful  Father,  we  most  humbly  beseech  Thee,  and 
vouchsafe  so  to  bless  and  sanctify  these  thy  creatures  of  bread  and  wine, 
that  we  receiving  them  according  to  thy  Son  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ's 
holy  institution,  in  remembrance,  etc.,"  as  it  now  stands.  This  reads 
as  well  as  before,  pleases  all  sides,  and  is  certainly  an  improvement,  as 
there  was  before  no  invocation  of  a  blessing  on  the  sacred  elements. 
When  you  send  the  book  to  Mr.  Parker,  of  Boston,  before  their  ensuing 
Convention,  send  him  as  from  me,  with  the  compliments  of  the  Mary- 
land Convention,  the  foregoing  proposed  addition  in  the  consecration 
prayer,  and  also  notify  our  agreement  with  our  New  England  brethren 
in  the  restitution  of  the  Nicene  Creed. 

I  beg  by  post  at  least  one  complete  book.  I  have  none  at  present. 
The  title  I  have  not  seen,  and  do  not  wish  to  alter,  but  it  should  cor- 

*  The  Rev.  William  Smith,  of  Stepney  Parish,  Somerset  county,  alluded  to,  supra, 
page  186.     See  a  sketch  of  him,  by  an  able  hand,  infra,  page  274. 


I98  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

respond  also  with  the  title  in  the  eleventh  page  of  the  journal  of  Con- 
vention. When  shall  we  have  books  ?  Our  clergy  and  laity  complained 
much  that  they  should  have  been  obliged  to  judge  of  the  book  on  a 
hasty  reading,  during  the  sitting  of  a  Convention. 

Yours,  Wm.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  April  12,  1786. 

Dear  Sir: I  think  the  proposed  alterations  of  your  Con- 
vention will  render  our  service  more  complete. 

With  this  I  shall  send  you  the  sheets  that  were  wanting  when  you  went 

down.     Mr.  W will  furnish  a  parcel  this  week.     As  there  is  a  vessel 

soon  to  sail  for  Charlestown,  you  will  approve  sending  to  the  most  dis- 
tant States  first.  Be  assured,  you  shall  have  a  parcel,  before  a  single 
book  is  sold  here. 

I  am  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 
Dr.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  April  17,  1786. 

Dear  Sir  : In  the  preface  at  the  bottom  of  page  4,  there  is 

an  error,  viz.,  ''construction"  for  "misconstruction."  It  is  the  last 
word  of  the  page,  and  is  a  capital  mistake  indeed  !  I  think  it  could 
not  have  been  in  the  copy.  In  the  last  page  of  the  preface,  second 
paragraph,  "Visitation  of  prisons,"  should  be  " \p7-isoners."  I  believe 
there  is  little  else  to  be  observed  in  the  preface,  although  I  cannot  say 
I  have  read  it  critically,  yet  it  seems  to  read  sufficiently  correct  for  the 
present.  I  shall  before  June  next  take  the  whole  book,  and  make  every 
correction  which  I  think  may  be  necessary  in  future  editions,  and  lay 
them  before  the  Convention.*  I  hope  you  and  perhaps  others  of  our 
brethren  will  do  the  same. 

I  wish  you  had  taken  my  advice  respecting  David's  114th  Psalm, 
which  stood  before  as  our  21st,  and  only  have  made  a  note  at  the  end 
of  the  book  that  the  psalm  was  misplaced,  and  ought  in  future  editions 
to  come  in  under  its  proper  metre,  as  Psalm  16,  and  that  the  metres  of 
148  and  149  should  be  exchanged  if  such  correction  be  necessary;  for 
it  is  merely  arbitrary  which  we  call  5th  and  which  the  6th  metres,  if 
the  Gloria  Patri's  be  arranged  accordingly. 

As  you  have  taken  our  24th  Psalm  or  David's  149th  from  the  sheet 
Gg  and  placed  it  Ff,  the  mere  reprinting  that  one  sheet  Ff  (which  you 

*  Dr.  Smith's  own  copy  of  the  Proposed  Book,  with  the  manuscript  corrections  re- 
ferred to  in  this  letter,  is  now  in  the  library  of  the  Right  Rev.  William  Bacon  Stevens, 
D.  D.,  of  Philadelphia,  to  whom  it  was  given  by  the  present  writer. — H.  W.  S. 


I7§5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  1 99 

have  sent  me),  will  not  complete  the  book.  You  will  have  the  first 
leaf  of  the  sheet  Gg  to  reprint,  or  else  the  whole  sheet,  if  the  book- 
binder does  not  choose  the  trouble  to  cut  out  a  leaf  in  every  sheet  and 
paste  it  in  the  book  which  is  immense  trouble,  and  will  occasion  much 
delay.  For  you  will  observe,  that  after  the  sheet  Ff  (which  is  reprinted) 
the  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th,  etc.,  verses  of  David's  148th  Psalm  must  come 
in  the  sheet  Gg,  where  his  149th  now  stands,  and  the  beginning  of  his 
96th  or  our  25th.  This,  as  I  said,  will  be  great  trouble  and  delay, 
which  I  am  sorry  for,  as  the  people  are  become  exceedingly  impatient 
for  copies  of  the  book,  and  the  more  so  as  they  have  more  experience 
of  its  use.  My  congregations  were  exceedingly  pleased  with  the  two 
Good  Friday  hymns,  which,  as  they  had  not  books,  were  first  read  and 
then  sung,  and  also  the  two  Easter  hymns,  No.  VII  and  No.  VIII,  but 
what  above  all  seemed  to  make  the  greatest  impression  was  the  two 
Communion  hymns,  viz.,  No.  XVII,  beginning  "My  God,  and  is  thy 
tabic  spread"  sung  after  sermon  as  an  invitation  to  the  Sacrament,  and 
No.  XVIII,  beginning  "And  are  we  now  drought  near  to  God,  etc.,'" 
sung  after  the  communion.  It  adds  a  solemnity  which  they  confessed 
they  had  not  experienced  before.  The  hymns  are  indeed  beautiful  and 
every  line  of  them  applicable  to  the  blessed  occasion.  Have  you  yet 
introduced  them  in  this  way?  When  you  do  you  will  find  it  of  use  to 
read  them  for  the  first  time  yourself,  from  the  place  where  you  are,  the 
desk  or  communion  table.  Every  communicant  will,  before  another 
day,  have  them  by  heart  as  I  believe  was  the  case  here,  between  Good 
Friday  and  Easter  Sunday,  as  the  book  was  sent  for  and  sundry  copies 
taken  in  writing,  I  mean  of  Hymns  17  and  18.  I  beg  I  may  have  at 
least  one  complete  book  this  post.  I  gave  all  away  at  Annapolis,  except 
the  loose  sheets  which  I  had  from  time  to  time  as  proofs.  You  will  take 
care  to  have  receipts  from  the  stage  masters,  skippers,  etc.,  to  whom 
you  deliver  books  for  distant  places  making  them  accountable  for  the 
number,  and  make  the  clergy  to  whom  you  address  them  accountable 
for  the  price — one  dollar. 

W.  S. 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  Md.,  April  24,  1786. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  favored  with  your  short  note  by  last  post,  in  which 
you  just  mention  the  receipt  of  mine  by  last  post;  but  as  it  appears  had 
not  time  to  notice  its  contents.  The  two  corrections  in  the  preface, 
and  a  proper  adjustment  respecting  the  sheets  in  the  singing  psalms- 
which  you  have  thought  necessary  to  reprint,  have  not,  I  trust,  escaped 
your  notice,  as  it  will  be  a  conclusion  of  the  great  attention  and  labor 
which  the  press  has  cost  you.  The  post  rider,  I  imagine,  called  on  you 
to  have  some  prayer  books  for  his  own  disposal,  on  commission  from 
sundry  of  his  subscribers.     But  unless  he  gets  them  from  booksellers  in 


200  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPOXDEXCE    OF   THE  [1786 

Philadelphia  who  may  be  some  time  hence  intrusted  with  the  sale  of 
copies,  it  will  occur  to  you  that  neither  he  nor  any  other  person  from 
the  neighboring  States  can  have  any  copies  at  present.  The  proportion 
for  each  State  must  be  sent,  agreeably  to  our  plan,  to  some  one  or  more 
of  the  clergy  in  each  State,  who  are  to  be  responsible  for  the  money 
arising  from  the  copies,  as  well  as  an  equal  distribution  of  the  books  in 
the  proportions  agreed  upon  in  their  several  Conventions.  In  Mary- 
land we  have  fixed  on  three  copies  out  of  every  five  for  the  Western 
Shore;  and  two  copies  for  the  Eastern,  the  former  to  Dr.  West's  care, 
the  latter  to  mine.  And  you  will  yet  have  the  trouble  to  take  receipts 
for  the  books  of  the  post  or  stage  carriers,  or  skippers,  etc.,  obliging 
themselves  to  deliver  parcels  or  boxes  as  directed.  The  expense  of 
package,  and  carriage,  etc.,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  profits  of  the  sale,  to 
make  the  price  equal  in  all  places,  for  Philadelphia  should  have  no 
superior  advantage  in  the  price,  by  lying  near  the  press.  The  book 
should  be  $i  to  a  purchaser  in  Philadelphia  as  well  as  in  Charlestown, 
Carolina;  and  the  stages,  where  they  go  by  stage,  will  not  take  them 
without  the  pay  advanced,  though  if  they  could  be  got  to  take  them 
and  be  paid  on  the  delivery  at  New  York,  Baltimore,  Alexandria,  etc., 
giving  their  receipt  to  you,  it  would  perhaps  insure  their  care  of  the 
parcels  the  better,  not  to  have  the  money  till  the  service  was  done. 
Your  local  situation  will  still  throw  all  this  care  and  trouble  upon  you, 
but  I  know  you  will  not  decline  it,  any  more  than  you  have  heretofore 
in  the  prosecution  of  this  work.  The  bookbinder  should  get  all  the 
help  he  can.  I  hope  Mr.  Marshal,*  of  Boston,  has  a  few  complete 
copies  including  the  preface,  calendar,  etc.  If  he  had  them  not  in  a 
bound  book  they  should  be  sent  in  sheets,  that  they  may  have  the 
whole  before  them,  and  especially  the  preface  giving  them  what  I  hope 
will  be  a  satisfactory  account  of  the  reasons,  and  expediency,  etc.,  of 
all  the  proposed  alterations. 

Of  the  first  five  hundred  copies  for  Maryland,  let  Mr.  West  have 
three  hundred,  which  may  go  twice,  viz.  :  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  a 
box  not  to  risk  all  at  once,  and  to  make  it  more  convenient,  for  the 
binder.  I  should  be  glad  of  about  twenty  copies  this  week  by  our 
post,  and  if  I  cannot  agree  with  him  for  a  reasonable  price  for  the  re- 
mainder, I  will  order  them  by  water  to  Duck  Creek,  and  send  for  them 
from  thence. 

I  am  affectionately  yours, 

Wm.  Smith. 


*  Doubtless  a  clerical  error  for  "  Parker,"  the  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston. 
The  Rev.  John  R.  Marshall,  A.  M.,  of  Connecticut,  attended  the  primary  meeting  in 
New  York  in  1784,  but  his  name  is  not  found  in  connection  with  any  subsequent 
proceedings. 


I/S6]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  201 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  April  29,  1786. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  received  twenty-two  copies  (two  in  morocco)  of 
the  Prayer  Book.  I  had  to  pay  at  the  rate  of  five  shillings  per  dozen 
carriage  to  the  post,  which  will  not  do  in  future.  There  is  a  stage  now 
set  up  from  Philadelphia  to  this  town,  an  acquaintance  of  mine  of  New- 
castle, a  Colonel  Derby,  at  the  head  of  it.  I  expect  him  here  by  next 
Wednesday's  stage,  which  will  be  the  second  trip,  and  shall  agree  with 
him  to  bring  the  books  and  to  do  other  business  for  me,  as  he  has  also 
a  stage  boat  to  Newcastle  from  Philadelphia  and  he  will  have  a  sufficient 
authority  from  me  to  produce  to  you  when  he  calls  for  the  remainder 
of  our  Eastern  Shore  complement  of  books,  which  I  hope  may  be  ready 
next  week,  as  the  few  we  have  has  only  increased  the  demand  of  many, 
while  some  old  persons  do  not  show  much  desire  to  exchange  the  old  for 
the  new  book.  But  all  I  hope  in  good  time,  and  without  much  uneasi- 
ness, especially  if  there  be  no  appearance  of  authority  Or  compulsion  in 
the  case. 

I  wish  there  could  be  a  little  note  of  the  principal  errata  pasted  on 
the  blank  leaf  at  the  end.  They  are  not  many;  but  "construction"  for 
" ////^-construction  "  is  one  of  some  consequence,  and  yet  a  candid 
reader  need  hardly  be  told  of  it. 

I  am  yours, 

Wm.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White  to  Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  May  6,  1786. 

Dear  Sir  : I  received  your  note  directing  the  books  by  the 

Newcastle  stage :  in  consequence  of  which  I  now  send  you  fifty,  two  of 
which  are  morocco;  and  these  are  the  most  that  can  be  spared  at 
present,  consistently  with  our  duty  to  the  other  States,  none  of  which 
(I  am  sure)  you  would  choose  to  have  neglected.  The  Eastern  Shore 
proportion  of  the  whole  is  (as  I  understand)  eight  in  the  hundred ;  and 
you  may  rely  on  that  proportion  being  always  ready. 

Perhaps  on  consideration  you  will  not  think  it  proper  to  print  a  table 
of  errata  at  present,  for  these  two  reasons:  1st,  because  so  many  of  the 
books  are  already  out;  and  2dly,  because  it  is  probable  more  errata 
may  appear,  which  will  seem  intended,  because  not  included  in  the 
table.  The  errors  you  allude  to  are  so  evidently  typographical,  that 
they  cannot  be  otherwise  taken. 

I  am  yours,  etc., 

Wm.  White. 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith. 


202  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [l/86 

This  ends  the  correspondence  between  Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Smith 
on  the  subject  of  giving  the  alterations,  etc.,  in  the  old  Prayer 
Book,  ordered  by  the  Convention  of  1785,  such  form  in  print  as 
should  best  carry  out  the  general  purpose  of  that  body. 

A  single  letter  additional  of  Dr.  Smith  to  a  gentleman  who,  as 
Bishop  of  Massachusetts,  subsequently  became  eminent,  though 
he  died  within  three  months  after  his  consecration,  shall  conclude 
what  I  have  of  my  ancestor's  correspondence  on  the  Proposed 
Book,  while  it  was  yet  going  through  the  press.* 

Dr.  Smith  to  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker. 

Chester,  Kent  County,  Maryland,  April  17,  1786. 
Dear  Sir:  Dr.  White  having  a  more  ready  communication  with  you 
than  I  could  have,  he  has  at  the  desire  of  our  committee  for  the  press, 
sent  you  the  sheets  of  our  revised  Prayer  Book,  and  I  hope  you  will 
have  the  whole  complete  by  the  meeting  of  your  Convention,  which 
Dr.  White  writes  me  is  to  be  about  the  end  of  this  month.  I  trust  that 
after  a  serious  and  candid  consideration  of  what  we  have  done,  it  will 
have  the  approbation  of  the  worthy  body,  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  who 
are  to  meet  you  in  convention ;  or  that  if  there  be  some  things,  which 
you  may  judge  could  have  been  done  otherwise,  or  better,  we  can  in 
future  editions  come  to  an  easy  agreement  on  this  head,  as  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  the  case  had  we  been  so  happy  as  to  have  had  your 
advice  and  assistance  as  we  expected  at  the  last  Convention.  I  think 
there  are  few  alterations  which  you  did  not  wish.  As  chairman  of  the 
grand  committee  for  revising,  etc.,  I  had  the  alterations  which  you  had 
proposed  in  your  last  meeting,  put  into  my  hands  the  first  day  of  our 
sitting,  and  you  will  see  that  I  paid  a  full  attention  to  them,  and  that 
we  have  agreed  with  you  almost  in  every  matter,  except  only  respecting 
the  Nicene  Creed,  and  our  Convention  in  Maryland  which  met  last 
week  have  recommended  the  restoring  that  creed  also,  so  that  either  it 
or  the  Apostles'  may  be  read  at  discretion,  provided  both  be  not  used 
in  one  service.  The  Maryland  Convention  have  proposed  also  an  addi- 
tion in  the  consecration  prayer  in  the  holy  communion,  something 
analogous  to  that  of  the  liturgy  of  Edward  Vlth  and  the  Scots'  liturgy, 
invoking  a  blessing  on  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine,  which  was  left 
out  at  the  first  review  of  the  English  liturgy,  it  is  said,  at  the  instance 
of  Bucer,  and  otherwise  because  the  invocation  favored  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  and  it  does  now  in  the  Scots'  liturgy  praying  to  bless 
and  sanctify  the  elements  that  they  may  become  the  body  and  blood,  etc. 


*  The  Rev.  Samuel  Parker,  consecrated  Bishop  (for  Massachusetts)  September  14th, 
1804,  died  December  6th,  1804. 


1786]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  203 

We  have  proposed  to  retain  the  prayer  and  yet  avoid  the  exceptionable 
part,  and  it  will  run  thus  : 

Hear  us,  0  Merciful  Father,  we  most  humbly  beseech  thee,  and  with  thy  word  and 
Holy  Spirit  vouchsafe  so  to  bless  and  sanctify  these  thy  creatures  of  bread  and  wine, 
that  we  receiving  the  same,  according  to  thy  Son  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ's  holy  in- 
stitution, etc. 

This  I  think  will  be  a  proper  amendment,  and  it  perfectly  satisfies 
such  of  our  clergy  and  people  as  were  attached  to  the  Scots'  and  other 
ancient  liturgies,  all  of  which  have  an  invocation  of  a  blessing  on  the 
elements,  as  is  indeed  most  reasonable  and  proper. 

I  am  anxious  to  write  you  by  this  post  to  have  a  chance  of  your  re- 
ceiving this  before  the  meeting  of  your  Convention.  I  have  therefore 
no  time  to  be  more  particular.  Where  we  have  gone  further  than  was 
hinted  in  the  alterations  you  formerly  sent  us,  viz.,  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  reading  and  singing  psalms,  the  calendars  and  rubrics,  the  col- 
lection of  hymns  on  evangelical  subjects  as  a  supplement  to  the  de- 
ficiencies of  David's  Psalms  and  other  matters,  which  we  have  set  forth  in 
the  preface,  I  say  in  all  this  I  know  you  will  exercise  a  candid  and  liberal 
judgment,  and  let  me  hear  from  you.  We  can  only  in  the  different 
States  receive  the  book  for  temporary  use,  till  our  churches  are  organ- 
ized, and  the  book  comes  again  under  review  of  conventions  having 
their  bishops,  etc.,  as  the  primitive  rules  of  Episcopacy  require. 

Excuse  this  hasty  scrawl  from 

Your  affectionate  brother,  etc., 

Wm.  Smith. 

P.  S. — I  shall  write  to  Bishop  Seabury  next  post. 


CHAPTER    XLVIII. 

The  "  Proposed  Book  " — Absurd  Pretensions  of  the  so-called  "  Reformed 
Episcopal  Church,"  that  the  Schism  of  their  Sect  found  Support  in 
it — History  of  the  Formation  of  the  Book — Dr.  Smith  chiefly  en- 
titled to  the  Credit   of    it — Some    Description    of  the    Respective 

ECCLESIOLOGICAL    CHARACTERS    AND    TASTES    OF    Dr.    SMITH,  Dr.  WHITE  AND 

Dr.  Wharton,  as  applied  to  this  Subject — Dr.  Smith's  Services  in 
Procuring  the  Episcopal  Succession — Adjourned  General  Convention 
of  1786  at  Wilmington — A  Partial  Compliance  with  the  Suggestions 
of  the  English  Archbishops— Dr.  White,  Dr.  Provost  and  Dr.  Griffith 
Recommended  to  the  English  Bishops  for  Consecration — Maryland 
Convention  of  1786 — Attestation  by  his  Parish  Officers  in  Maryland 
of  Dr.  Smith's  Fitness  for  Consecration. 

The  correspondence  in  the  last  chapter  runs  through  two  years 
(1785-86) ;  therefore  this  chapter  does  the  same. 


204  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

I  have  already  observed  *  that  a  religious  consociation,  calling 
itself  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Churchy  upon  its  first  departure  from 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States,  adopted 
temporarily  as  its  liturgy  the  Proposed  Book  of  1785.  It  made 
omissions  from  it ;  which,  if  not  made,  would  have  struck  a  fatal 
blow  to  some  of  the  new  sect's  grounds  of  schism,  and  it  made 
at  once  an  announcement  of  its  purpose  to  subject  the  book  to 
revision  in  its  portions  left ;  a  revision  to  be  made  in  accordance 
with  certain  principles  which  the  "General  Council"  of  the  sece- 
ders  set  forth,  and  which,  in  fact,  were  at  variance  not  only  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Proposed  Book,  but  with  some  of  its  letter  also.f  This 
schismatical  party  soon  found  that  the  Proposed  Book — which 
indeed  itself  declared  in  terms,  that  it  was  "far"  from  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Church  which  promulged  it  to  depart  from  the  Church 
of  England  any  further  than  local  circumstances  required — could 
not  be  managed  by  them  at  all ;  and  sailing  on  the  broad  and  un- 
charted sea  of  their  own  ignorance,  audacity  and  error,  before 
long  threw  the  Proposed  Book  bodily  overboard.  Disregarding, 
however,  the  fact  that  no  point  of  doctrine  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land was  denied  by  the  new  book,  they  have  sought,  by  praising 
it,  to  convey  the  idea  that  the  book  justified  their  schism ;  and 
during  the  time  that  their  conventicles  did  use  it,  they  spoke  of  it 
— as  they  have  also  done  since — by  way  of  giving  to  it  a  weight 
which  they  could  not  give  to  it  themselves,  as  "Bishop  Wliilc's 
Prayer  Book; "J  a  mode  of  speaking  of  it  which   I  have  already 

*  Supra. 

f  See  the  edition  of  the  Proposed  Book  reprinted  in  1873,  under  the  authority  of 
George  David  Cummins.  The  Order  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  which  is  found  in 
the  original  Proposed  Book  is  wholly  omitted  from  the  reprint;  and  if  the  ideas  of  the 
so-called  Reformed  Church  were  well  based  were  omitted  with  reason,  since  that  order 
retains  the  English  rubric  directing  that  the  sick  person  shall  be  "  moved,"  i.  e.,  shall 
be  recommended,  urged  or  prevailed  on,  "  to  make  a  special  confession  of  his  sins,  if 
he  feel  his  conscience  troubles  him  with  any  weighty  matter,"  after  which  confession  a 
declaration  of  absolution  is  to  be  made  to  him. 

J  Bishop  Nicholson,  in  his  "  Reasons  why  I  became  a  Reformed  Episcopalian,"  says, 
in  speaking  (p.  26)  of  the  service  book  of  the  new  sect  : 

"  It  is  in  most  things  essentially  the  same  as  that  known  as  Bishop  White's  Prayer 
Book,  in  the  making  of  which  were  associated  with  the  Bishop  such  men  as  Wharton, 
and  Smith,  and  Provost,  and  Washington,  and  Jay." 

Was  ignorance  ever  more  audacious  than  this  ?  As  will  sufficiently  appear  hereafter, 
Dr.  White  never  cordially  liked  the  new  book.  Washington  had  nothing  under  heaven 
to  do  with  it,  and  Mr.  Jay  no  more.  Jay  was  not  a  member  of  the  Convention  of 
Sept.  1785,  which  made  the  book,  any  more  than  was  Washington. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  20$ 

called  "audacious"  and  which  undoubtedly,  so  far  as  it  conveyed 
an  assertion  of  exclusive  authorship  or  compilation  by  that  emi- 
nent person,  had  no  foundation  in  fact. 

It  is  not  easy  for  me  at  this  late  day  clearly  to  show  to  whom, 
in  its  particular  composition,  we  principally  owe  the  Proposed 
Book ;  a  volume  having  some  deficiencies  no  doubt,  having  some 
excellent  points  too,  and  entitled,  under  any  circumstances,  to  the 
admiration  of  the  people  of  America,  as  the  basis  on  which  was 
in  part  constructed  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  set  forth  and 
ratified  in  1789;  a  work  nearly  perfect,  and  one  which,  in  view 
of  the  difficulties  under  which  the  Church  in  America — after  our 
severance  of  obligation  to  the  King  of  England,  as  the  temporal 
head  of  the  Church;  to  the  Bishop  of  London  as  diocesan  of  our 
colonies,  and  to  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  as 
the  source  of  support  to  many  country  churches — was  placed  by 
the  independency,  in  law,  of  every  parish  of  every  other,  and  of 
ever}-  common  superior,  must  be  contemplated  with  gratitude  and 
praise.  The  journal  of  the  Convention  of  1785  shows  nothing 
particular  of  importance  on  the  subject  of  the  respective  authors 
or  makers  of  the  book.  Bishop  Perry  *  rightly  says  that  "  a  more 
guarded  and  incommunicative  record  could  hardly  be  found,"  and 
we  can  learn  from  it  neither  the  reasons  for  the  changes  proposed 
by  the  committee  nor  the  reception  that  they  met  with  from  the 
members  of  the  Convention.  I  think,  however,  that  to  Dr.  Smith 
more  than  to  any  one  else  the  formation  of  the  book  is  due. 

It  is  sometimes  popularly  supposed  from  the  fact  that  Dr. 
White,  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr.  Wharton  were  the  persons  by  whom 
the  copy  for  the  Proposed  Book  was  fitted  for  the  press  and  pub- 
lished— that  those  three  gentlemen  were  the  persons  who  com- 
posed or  framed  it.     This  is  a  great  mistake.     What  we  find  in 


Another  of  these  Reformed  gentlemen — the  Rev.  Benjamin  Johnson  (Correspond- 
ence with  the  Rt  Rev.  Dr.  Beckwith,  Bishop  of  Georgia,  p.  21) — asks  with  similar 
ignorance : 

"  Would  Bishop  White,  whose  recovered  Prayer  Book  so  clearly  exposes,  etc." 

The  Rev.  Mason  Gallagher,  in  like  style  in  "  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  Re- 
vision a  Duty  and  Necessity,"  p.  54,  says: 

"The  revision  of  Bishop  White  was  in  use  but  four  years." 

The  book  referred  to  was  not  the  revision  of  Bishop  White,  and  it  was  never  in  any 
general  use  at  all. 

*  "  Half  Century  of  Legislation,"  Vol.  III.,  page  100. 


206  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1785 

the  Proposed  Book  was  made,  in  its  substance,  and  in  its  main 
form  also,  in  and  by  tne  Convention  of  1785;  and  the  service  as 
set  forth  in  the  book  had  been  actually  used  at  the  conclusion  of 
that  Convention  before  the  book  was  itself  in  print  at  all.  It  had 
been  all  brought  into  the  Convention  by  a  committee,  the  names 
of  whose  members  we  have  already  given ;  *  men  who,  both  as  re- 
spects the  clerical  and  the  lay  part  of  it,  were  men  who,  in  general, 
thought  and  acted  for  themselves,  though  a  spirit  of  conciliation 
towards  each  other,  no  doubt,  on  this  occasion,  largely  prevailed 
among  them.  It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  say  that  the  book 
was  the  work  of  any  one  man  or  of  any  three  men.  All  that  the 
committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  White,  Dr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Wharton, 
did — so  far  as  we  know  with  certainty — was  to  carry  out,  with  a 
liberal  interpretation  of  their  powers,  the  business  of  fitting  the 
work  for  the  press.  Nevertheless,  I  do,  as  I  have  said,  suppose 
that  to  my  ancestor,  Dr.  Smith,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  in- 
trusted with  the  work  of  the  alterations,  and  as  the  person  who 
reported  them  to  the  Convention,  is  due  much  of  the  frame-work 
of  that  book.  Dr.  White  was  President  of  the  Convention  and 
took  no  part  in  debate  there  upon  the  book  except  on  a  single 
occasion ;  which  was  to  oppose  the  introduction  of  one  feature — a 
service  of  thanksgiving  for  the  4th  of  July.f  The  work  of  the 
large  committee  appointed  by  the  Convention  was  done  in  a  sub- 
committee, of  which  Dr.  White  was  not  a  member.  The  work 
of  the  sub-committee  was  not  debated  in  the  full  committee,  nor 
much  in  the  Convention. % 

From  the  first  coming  of  Dr.  Smith  to  this  continent  he  had  a 
profound  conviction  of  its  great  destinies;  and  he  expressed,  early 
and  often,  these  convictions  both  in  poetry  and  prose.  At  a  later 
day,  1790,  embodying  some  of  them,  he  writes: 

In  my  expanded  view  these  United  States  rise  in  all  their  ripened 
glory  before  me.  I  look  through  and  beyond  every  yet  peopled  region 
of  the  New  World,  and  behold  period  still  brightening  upon  period. 
Where  one  continuous  depth  of  gloomy  wilderness  now  shuts  out  even 
the  beams  of  day,  I  see  new  States  and  Empires,  new  seats  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge,  new  religious  domes  spreading  around  in  places  now 

*  Supra,  page  1 19. 

f  "  White's  Memoirs."     Second  Edition,  pp.  104-105. 

X  Id.,  103. 


I7S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  207 

untrod  by  any  but  savage  beasts  or  man  as  savage  as  they.     I  hear  the 
voice  of  happy  labor  and  behold  towery  cities  growing  into  the  skies. 

How  remarkable,  too,  is  that  passage  in  a  letter  of  his,  written 
A.  d.  1785,  nearly  a  century  ago: 

Surely  in  large  towns  and  cities  (of  which  America  will  have  many 
in  a  hundred  years  more)  the  good  old  custom  of  week-day  prayers  will 
not  be  laid  aside. 

Did  he  foresee  Chicago  ?  Was  De  Kovcn,  the  Rector  of 
Racine,  revealed  to  him?  Thank  God,  the  day  which  he  waited 
for — though  he  died  without  the  sight — has  arrived ;  and  from 
churches  everywhere  in  our  land,  and  most  of  all  from  the  very- 
church  which  he  dedicated,*  and  that  elder  one  in  which  he 
oftener  preached, f  the  voice  of  confession,  and  prayer,  and  thanks- 
giving, and  praise  now  ascend  every  morning  and  evening  daily 
throughout  the  year. 

So  soon,  therefore,  as  the  Church  in  America  became  indepen- 
dent of  the  Church  in  England,  which — since  and  so  long  as  that 
latter  Church  was  a  part  of  the  State  and  under  the  control  more 
or  less  of  a  British  Parliament  and  British  statutes — deprived  of 
its  independence — its  wings  clipped  and  its  limbs  manacled — our 
said  Church  in  America  necessarily  did  become — Dr.  Smith  con- 
templated it  "in  all  its  ripened  glory"  before  him!  He  saw  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
spread  over  the  whole  continent ;  half  of  Mexico  already  annexed, 
and  all  of  Canada  soon  to  be.  What  were  the  English  bishops — 
lords  of  parliament  though  they  were — to  that  consecrated  host 
which  assembles  in  oar  upper  ecclesiastical  house?  What  the 
English  laymen — in  no  office  whatever,  ecclesiastically  speaking — 
to  our  body  of  lay  representatives  in  General  Convention  with 
clergy  triennially  assembled  ?  Dr.  Smith  had  no  idea  of  subjecting 
the  Church  in  this  New  World  to  a  liturgy,  to  orders  of  service, 
or  to  articles  which  had  been  made  in  England  only  under  the 
greatest  difficulties  ;  which  were  a  temporary  compromise  between 
extreme  parties  on  opposite  sides;  which  had  never  proved  satis- 

*  St.  Peter's,  Philadelphia,  in  which,  by  the  efforts  of  the  then  youthful  Odenheimer 
(now  with  God),  the  daily  service  and  frequent  communions  were  established. 

f  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia.  Indeed  through  the  zealous  work  of  the  present 
Rector,  Dr.  Foggo,  that  church  is  now  open  all  through  the  day  for  either  public  or 
private  prayer. 


208  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

factory  to  all  of  either  the  Church's  clergy  or  its  laity  in  England, 
and  which  would  have  been  long  before  reformed  and  altered  in 
England  itself  but  for  political  heats  and  for  the  accidents  of  the 
day.  He  meant,  therefore,  to  have  the  Church  in  America  have 
its  own  Book  of  Common  Prayer;  one  founded  on  Scriptural 
usage  and  compiled  from  primitive  liturgies,  so  much  as  might 
be ;  leaving  the  Church  in  the  little  and  vanquished  isles  of  Great 
Britain  to  imitate  and  adopt  it  when  she  saw  fit. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  United  States  declared  themselves  in- 
dependent of  Great  Britain  in  1776,  and  were  acknowledged  by 
her  in  1783  to  be  so,  it  was  a  long  while  before,  in  many  respects, 
we  ceased  to  be  colonies  and  to  be  really  independent.  We  are 
so  indeed  only  since  the  suppression,  by  the  Federal  arms,  of  the 
late  Rebellion,  and  the  complete  success  of  our  Great  Exhibition 
of  1876.  The  leaders  of  the  Federal  party — men  like  Hamilton, 
Gouverneur  Morris,  Marshall,  and  some  others — would  at  once 
have  made  us  truly  a  nation  of  the  earth,  but  some  of  the  men  of 
New  England,  and  even  those  further  south,  were  not  able,  for 
years,  wholly  to  emancipate  themselves ;  while  the  Democratic 
party,  under  the  lead  of  Jefferson,  Monroe,  Gerry,  and  others,  went 
at  once  into  a  state  of  absolute  vassalage  to  France ;  a  vassalage 
which  continued  pretty  steadily  to  the  time  of  Napoleon  the  bas- 
tard, sometimes  called  Napoleon  III.;  when  we  saw  in  him  the 
Iago  of  the  plot  of  our  late  rebellion,  and  were  disenchanted. 
Dr.  Smith,  so  soon  as  our  political  independence  was  acknowledged 
— indeed  so  soon  as  he  saw  that  it  was  achieved — comprehended 
the  whole  situation.  He  saw  at  once,  and  with  the  glance  of  intui- 
tion, what  many  men  did  not  see  for  about  a  century — indeed  hardly 
see  now,  some  of  them — and  he  meant  to  make  independence,  at 
once,  a  fact,  instead  of  a  dream.  Even  in  1785,  as  we  have  seen,* 
on  the  first  motion  of  a  review  of  the  Prayer  Book,  he  hopes  that 
hymns  for  the  festivals  and  other  occasions  "  may  be  offered  by 
members  of  our  own  Church  in  America,  who  are  distinguished 
for  their  poetical  talents."  He  anticipated  by  half  a  century  a 
hymnal  which  includes  the  strains  of  Muhlenburgh,  of  Henry 
Ustick  Onderdonk,  and  of  the  elder  Doane. 

With  what  zeal  he  entered  upon  the  subject  of  the  alterations 

*  Supra,  p.  143. 


I785J  REV.    WILLIAM  SMLTIL,   D.  D.  2CX) 

in  the  liturgy,  and  to  what  extent  they  were  agreeable  to  Mm, 
may  be  inferred,  not  only  from  the  already  quoted  sermon  before 
the  Convention  of  1785,  but  from  the  ably  written  Preface  to  the 
Proposed  Book  which  contains  the  alterations,  and  in  which,  as 
in  notes  to  the  sermon,  he  shows  how  necessary  some  alterations 
really  were ;  how  long  they  had  been  considered  necessary  in 
England  by  many  of  its  soundest  divines,  and  how  especially 
desirable  it  was  that  any  changes  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Church 
in  America  should  be  made  noiv  when — uninfluenced  and  unre- 
strained by  any  worldly  authority  whatsoever — they  could  so  be 
made  as  to  promulgate  to  mankind  Christianity  and  the  truths  of 
the  Gospel  in  the  clearest,  plainest,  most  affecting  and  majestic 
manner. 

Dr.  Smith,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  a  Scotsman,  not  an 
Englishman.  He  was  not  a  parochial  minister  who  had  been 
reading  daily  all  his  life  the  morning  and  evening  prayers  of  the 
English  Church,  but  was  the  head  of  a  college  where  all  the  rest 
of  the  faculty  were  dissenters,  and  several  of  them  dissenting 
clergymen,  and  where  probably  he  was  continually  urged  and 
sometimes  compelled  to  use  forms  not  to  be  found  in  the  book  of 
common  prayer.  He  was,  moreover,  frequently  called  upon  as  a 
preacher  for  public  occasions  and  ceremonies  where  religious  ser- 
vices were  used,  but  where  neither  the  order  for  daily  morning 
prayer,  nor  the  order  for  daily  evening  prayer,  of  the  book  of 
common  prayer  could  be  used  without  modifications.  Neither 
his  education  nor  profession,  therefore,  gave  him  blind  preposses- 
sions or  prejudices  in  favor  of  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, as  adopted  in  1660 ;  only  one  of  five  forms  which  that  Church 
had  been  using  in  the  short  term  of  about  one  century.  Inde- 
pendently of  all  this,  his  mind  was  rich  and  imaginative.  His 
conceptions  of  what  best  produced  effect  were  somewhat  the- 
atrical. His  own  style  of  oratory  was  high  and  orotund ;  oc- 
casionally perhaps  a  little  turgid,  but  oftener  grand  and  sometimes 
even  majestic. 

Detesting,  as  matter  of  taste  and  of  divinity  also,  we  may 
believe,  "  the  way  of  Romaine,"  and  all  the  sweetened  mud  of 
the  Methodist  preachers  of  his  day* — corresponding  largely  to 

*  See  Vol.  I.,  page  423. 
14 


2IO  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  (^1785 

"  the  low  church  "  of  a  later  and  of  ours — he  yet  wanted  a  body 
of  hymns  introduced  into  our  prayer  book  ;  writing  to  Dr.  White 
that  "  the  Methodists  captivate  many  by  their  attention  to  church 
music  and  by  their  hymns  and  doxologies,"  which,  as  he  says, 
"  when  rationally  and  devoutly  introduced,  are  sublime  parts  of 
public  and  private  worship,"  and  again  writing, 

The  Psalms  of  David,  unless  where  tortured  by  versifiers,  have  but 
few  evangelical  subjects. 

And  writing  again  when  Dr.  White  desired  to  leave  the  Litany 
a  part  of  the  service  separable  from  the  order  for  daily  morning 
prayer : 

Let  not  our  abridgments  be  too  great.  Without  the  Litany,  Wednes- 
day and  Friday  prayers  would  not  draw  many  to  church. 

And  again  as  to  certain  prayers : 

The  service  would  appear  quite  naked  without  them.* 

A  hymn,  suggested  by  Dr.  White,  composed  by  Francis  Hop- 
kinson,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Dr.  Smith 
finds  "too flat  for  the  great  occasion." 

We  can  readily  conceive  that  the  simplicity  in  the  style  of  parts 
of  the  English  liturgy — its  pure  and  little  sonorous  Saxon,  and  its 
merely  self-abasing  terms  with  which  its  liturgy  opens — did  not 
quite  come  up  to  the  grandeur  of  thought,  and  the  sonorite  of 
utterance,  and  the  impressivencss  of  spectacle,  which  the  mind 
and  eye  and  ear  of  Dr.  Smith  affected  and  indeed  required. 

To  illustrate  what  I  mean  : 

The  Church  of  England  begins  her  service  with  sentences 
purely  penitential,  and  inviting  to  confession  of  sin,  and  the  Ex- 
hortation which  adverts  to  these  "  sundry  places  "  thus  put  before 
the  people  in  which  the  Scripture  moveth  them  to  confess  their 
manifold  sins  and  wickedness  and  assures  them  of  the  forgiveness 
of  the  same,  if  those  sins  and  wickednesses  are  rightly  confessed, 
we  shall,  by  God's  infinite  goodness  and  mercy,  obtain.  But 
there  was  no  asceticism  nor  any  vast  humility  in  Dr.  Smith's  com- 
position ;  while  there  was  always  an  awful  sense  of  God's  presence 
and    greatness.      To   Dr.  Smith,  therefore,  have  been  generally 

*See  supra,  pp.  143,  147,  l68,  CI. 


I7S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  211 

ascribed  and  I  presume  rightly  those  two  grand  verses  first  found 
in  the  Proposed  Book. 

The  Lord  is  in  his  holy  temple  :  let  all  the  earth  keep  silence  before 
him. — Hab.  ii.  20. 

From  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  unto  the  going  down  of  the  same, 
my  name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles;  and  in  every  place  incense 
shall  be  offered  unto  my  name,  and  a  pure  offering :  for  my  name  shall 
be  great  among  the  heathen,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts. — Mai.  i.  11. 

And  this  third  one — meant  to  have  been  put  there,  though  from 
accident  apparently  omitted — very  appropriate  to  a  person  coming 
into  God's  house,  but  not  a  penitential  sentence : 

Let  the  words  of  my  mouth,  and  the  meditation  of  my  heart,  be 
alway  acceptable  in  thy  sight,  O  Lord,  my  strength  and  my  Redeemer.* 
— Psalm  xix.  14,  15. 

I  suppose  too  that  to  Dr.  Smith's  liking  of  an  enriched  ritual, 
and  to  the  fact  that  he  habitually  used  the  communion  service  as 
one  separate  from  the  morning  prayer,  we  owe  that  fine  introduc- 
tion from  the  communion  into  the  daily  service,  as  an  anthem,  of 
the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  Deo,  instead  of  the  Gloria  Patri ;  and  some 
other  changes  of  a  like  kind. 

In  addition  to  this  rich  and  decorated  style  of  taste  which  char- 
acterized the  subject  of  our  memoir,  we  may  observe  that  there 
was  nothing  archaic  in  his  literary  tastes.  Paying  to  them  great 
respect,  and  sometimes  quoting  them,  he  was  never  enamored  of 
the  old  divines  of  the  Church  of  England,  nor  of  any  antique  ex- 
pressions in  them.  Indeed,  he  mentions  what  we  can  well  under- 
stand, that  "  in  his  situation  "  his  reading  had  only  been  a  dipping 
into  books  as  occasion  required  and  time  would  permit,  "  and  that 
he  did  not  remember"  his  ever  having  read  any  regularly  through 
without  skipping  from  place  to  place,  except,  perhaps,  Robinson 

*  These  sentences  are  so  grand  and  impressive  that  they  are  retained  in  our  present 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  notwithstanding  the  penitential  character  of  all  those  that 
succeed,  and  with  the  reference  to  them  only,  in  the  exhortation  of  the  minister,  which 
follows.  If  Dr.  Smith  could  have  given  perfection  to  his  idea,  I  rather  apprehend 
that  he  would  have  considered  his  three  verses  as  something  apart  from  and  preceding 
the  order  of  daily  morning  service,  and  in  the  way  in  which  the  metre  psalms  and 
hymns  are  now  allowed  to  be  sung  in  (not  by)  all  congregations  before  morning  and 
evening  prayer.  What  a  grand  Processional  the  three  verses  would  make !  What  a 
rtapaaxtvr,,  or  preparation  for  confession  of  sins  and  absolution  of  them  in  the  holy 
temple  of  the  Lord  !  The  Prayer  Book  of  the  "  Reformed  Church  of  England  "  does, 
indeed,  somewhat  thus  use  the  first  of  these  three  verses. 


212  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [I/85 

Crusoe,  Thomson's  Seasons,  and  Young's  Night  Thoughts,  at  a 
time,  as  they  appeared."*  It  is,  therefore,  under  Dr.  Smith's  sug- 
gestion that  those  old  words,  "  the  good  estate  of  the  Catholic 
Church,"  which,  in  these  days  when  old  furniture  has  been  hauled 
out  of  garrets  to  decorate  the  parlors,  enchant  our  ecclesiologists, 
disappear.  The  churchmen  in  Maryland,  he  feared,  would  see  in 
them  the  likeness  of  "  glebes,"  and  of  a  three-fold  crown. f  From 
this  same  wish  to  make  the  book  acceptable  to  the  people,  Dr. 
Smith  made  and  was  energetic  in  introducing  the  form  of  thanks- 
giving for  the  4th  of  July ;  a  service  which  as  the  people  of  the 
United  States  valued  their  independence  of  Great  Britain,  and  if 
they  did  really  value  it,  he  felt  no  doubt  was  not  only  proper  for 
them  but  obligatory  on  them  to  use ;  however  little  it  might  be 
appropriate  to  such  of  the  clergy  and  to  such  of  the  congrega- 
tions committed  to  their  charge  as  had  been  loyal  in  act  or  feeling 
to  Great  Britain ;  a  class  of  persons,  he  well  knew,  not  numerous 
in  1785,  daily  growing  smaller  and  in  a  few  years  certain  to  dis- 
appear altogether.  To  Dr.  Smith  and  to  his  distastes  for  all  un- 
necessary polemical  and  conjectural  divinity — that  light  bread 
which  satisfieth  not — we  apparently  owe  the  Articles  of  Religion 
as  given,  supra,  pages  1 27-1 31,  and  the  omission  of  such  meta- 
physical dogmas  as  are  contained  in  them  as  found  in  the  old 
Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  as  have  been  re- 
instated in  our  own  of  1789.  They  were  not,  however,  in  their 
new  form,  Dr.  Smith's  own  work,  but  were  taken  for  the  most 
part  from  a  book  of  an  anonymous  English  Church  Reformer. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  the  articles  in  their  present  form,  like 
some  parts  of  the  English  liturgy,  are  put  in  with  such  "  cunning" 
language  as  to  mean  things  almost  directly  opposite,  according  as 
you  read  them  with  a  point  or  without  a  point,  or  as  the  hearer  or 
reader  may  choose  to  listen  to  them  or  fancy  that  they  are  read. 
They  are  the  "Ibis  Pcribis  non  Rcdibis,"  given  as  answer  by  the 
old  oracles,  to  the  inquirer,  who  sought  to  know  if  he  might  safely 
go  to  the  wars ;  an  answer  which,  if  the  pause  was  made  after  the 
second  word,  meant  that  he  should  be  slain ;  but,  if  after  the 
third,  meant  the  opposite,  and  that  he  should  return  in  safety. 
These  passages  of  the  old  Prayer  Book  are  "  the  dark  and  mys- 


*  Dr.  Smith's  Works.     Maxwell's  Edition.     Vol.  II.,  page  487— note. 
■f  See  supra,  page  150. 


I7S5]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  21  3 

terious  sentences,"  which  Dr.  Smith  in  the  sermon  that  we  have 
already  referred  to,  preached  before  the  Convention  of  1785,  hopes 
that  "  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  may  never  be  obscured  by."     The 
purpose  of  this  cunning  device  of  the  Church  of  England  was  no 
doubt  good.     It  was  to  keep  within  that  Church  those  who  were 
nearly  Puritans  and  those  who  were  nearly  Papists ;  but  were  not 
wholly   either.      The    Reformed    Episcopal    Church — a  body   of 
schismatics  existing  now  both  in  England  and  America — and  the 
defection   to    Rome   of  such    men   as   Wilberforce,   Manning  and 
Newman — with  the  unscceded  body  of  so-called  "  Ritualists  " — a 
mild  form,  in  their  more  advanced  developments,  of  Romanists — 
show  that  complete  success  has  not  attended  the  well-meant  effort. 
And  what  food  have  not  such  expressions  with  the  very  subtle 
distinctions  of  some  of  the  Church  of  England  articles,  not  min- 
istered for  most  learned  and  most  curious  disputations ;  dividing 
the  Church  into  parties  to-day,  and  never  thought  of  when  the 
day  had  gone.     Where  are  now  the  two  volumes,  engendered  in 
the  Church  by  the  17th  article,  of  "Comparative  Views  of  the  Con 
troversy  between  the  Calvinists  and  the  Arminians,by  William  White, 
D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Common- 
wealth of  Pennsylvania"  published  so  late  as   1817;  one  of  the 
most  laborious  and  learned,  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  acute, 
one  of  the  most  logical  and  dispassionate  controversial  works  ever 
written,  and   till   lately  a   text-book   in   the   general   Theological 
Seminary  of  the  Church  ?     Gone — gone — almost  as  much  as  the 
years  beyond  the  flood.     Where  will  be  in  less  than  half  the  time 
that  has  elapsed  since  1 8 17  the  fiery  feuds  in  England  and  Amer- 
ica, and  the  heated  proceedings  of  some  of  our  late  Church  Con- 
ventions, on  the  subject  of  the  Eucharistic  and  Sacerdotal  party 
that  we  have  just  spoken  of  and  called  (improperly  enough)  the 
Ritualists  ?     Gone — gone — to  follow  them.     Both   I  am  ready  to 
concede  likely  to  come  back  in  the  encyclicity  of  those  parties, 
whom  our  articles  and  liturgy  in  their  present  shape  will  ever  keep 
alive,  but  which  Dr.  Smith,  by  the  Proposed  Book,  sought  to  send 
away  for  ever  from  the  Church.     And  by  the  rejection  of  a  stum- 
bling-block in  the  ministration  of  baptism — a  word  which  though 
explained  by  a  general  Convention,  was  still  a  terror  to  those  once 
thoroughly  affrighted — he  would, perhaps,  have  saved  from  apostacy 
a  portion  of  the  Church  which  can  argue  with  some  plausibility — 


214  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Ql/85 

though  not  at  all  with  truth — that  it  carried  away  in  its  schism, 
that  high  portion  of  its  orders  which  the  Wesleys  and  Coke  had 
never  been  able  to  detach.  He  explains  his  purposes  and  hopes 
when  he  says,  in  the  sermon  of  1785  already  quoted: 

Were  our  blessed  Saviour  now  upon  earth,  he  would  not  narrow  the 
terms  of  communion,  by  such  ways  as  these ;  and  it  is  our  duty,  as  it 
hath  been  our  great  endeavor  in  all  the  alterations  proposed,  to  make 
the  consciences  of  those  easy  who  believe  in  the  true  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity in  general,  and  who,  could  they  be  made  easy  in  certain  points 
no  way  essential  to  Christianity  itself,  would  rather  become  worshippers 
as  well  as  laborers,  in  that  part  of  Christ's  vineyard,  in  which  we  pro- 
fess to  worship  and  to  labor,  than  in  any  other. 

Dr.  Smith  had  already  declared  "  that  ever  since  the  Reforma- 
tion it  had  been  a  received  doctrine  of  the  Church,"  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  "  that  there  be  these  three  orders  of  ministers  in 
Christ's  Church — Bishops,  Priests  and  Deacons — and  that  an 
Episcopal  Ordination  and  Commission  are  necessary  to  the  valid 
administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  the  due  exercise  of  minis- 
terial functions  in  the  said  Church."  *  This,  we  may  infer,  he 
would  have  regarded  as  among  "the  true  principles  of  Christianity 
in  general,"  and  not  in  any  way  or  ever  to  be  surrendered.  These 
are  different  ideas  from  those  of  the  apostate  "  Reformed  Episcopal 
Church,"  and  indeed  from  what  we  now  call  "  low  churchmen;" 
men  still  in  the  Church.  Such,  I  say,  were  Dr.  Smith's  ideas  and 
purposes.  A  clear  and  deep  conception  of  what  the  Church  was, 
lay,  no  doubt,  at  the  base  of  all  his  plans  and  all  his  work.  But  ar- 
tificial, complicated  and  metaphysical  formularies,  articles  or  rites, 
however  venerable  or  however  wonderful,  he  looked  upon  as  essen- 
tially of  human  elaboration  and  structure,  and  the  more  perfectly 
they  were  worked  out  in  theological  operation  and  detail,  the  more 
plainly  did  he  see  man's  work  and  man's  character  stamped  upon 
them.  His  mind,  in  its  natural  structure,  rejoiced  in  "that  elder, 
wider  and  wiser  view  which  contemplates  Revelation  only,  as  the 
fullness  of  and  assurance  of  a  grace  previously  developed  in  natural 
religion — a  view  which  shuts  not  out,  but  rather  gathers  in  the 
glory  of  the  open  universe;"  though,  of  course,  he  considered  too, 
that  without  the  Church's  interpretation,  the  refining  beauty  of 

*  See  supra,  page  97. 


I785]  AEV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  21 5 

this  beneficent  nature  could  never  be  unsphered  to  us  ;  and  through 
that  Church's  mighty  and  long  enduring  ministration  he  sought, 
therefore,  to  reveal  the  iris-lustre  inherent  in  the  common  day, 
but  there  invisible.* 

That  the  purposes  of  Dr.  Smith  in  his  Proposed  Book  were 
good  is  undeniable.  That  the  book  itself — unlike  the  book  of  the 
so-called  "  Reformed  Episcopal  Church  " — did  not  carry  the  re- 
view of  the  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer  "  into  essential 
points  of  doctrine,"  has  been  uniformly  admitted  both  by  the  Eng- 
lish and  the  American  bishops  and  other  clergy.  How  far  the 
plan  of  the  Proposed  Book  would  have  secured  the  purpose  which 
it  had  in  view — since  the  book  was  never  adopted  as  the  liturgy 
of  the  Church  in  America — no  man  in  this  day  can  do  more  than 
conjecture. 

To  Dr.  Smith,  too,  aided  considerably  by  Dr.  Wharton,  we  owe 
the  system  adopted  in  the  Proposed  Book,  of  leaving  out  psalms  now 
in  the  Psalter,  or  verses  of  particular  psalms  that  are  inappropriate 
for  public  service ;  and  of  joining  parts  or  verses  of  one  psalm  to 
those  of  another  so  as  to  make  a  uniformity  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing, and  then  of  dividing  the  whole  into  parts  of  suitable  length. f 
Both  of  these  gentlemen — Dr.  Smith  being,  doubtless,  the  more 
operative  agent — could  not  but  see  the  inappropriateness  of  people 
reading  in  the  public  worship  psalms  and  verses,  some  of  which 
— unless  before  they  came  to  church  they  had  read  an  Exposition 
of  the  Psalter — were  wholly  unintelligible ;  and  others  of  which, 
even  if  they  did  understand  them,  were  entirely  inappropriate  ; 
expressing  sometimes  high  states  of  exultation,  and  at  others 
deep  despondency — feelings,  which — as  common  to  them  all,  and 
whether  one  or  the  other — could  hardly  exist  in  any  congregation 
of  worshippers  whatsoever. 

The  plan — though  executed  in  the  Proposed  Book  with  great 
skill  and  great  good  taste — was  subject,  no  doubt,  to  objections 
of  more  sorts  than  one.  And  the  "Selection  of  Psalms,"  as  made 
in  our  present  book  and  than  which  no  arrangement  or  use  of  the 

*  See  "Art  and  Scenery  in  Europe,"  by  the  late  Horace  Binney  Wallace,  of  Phila- 
delphia;  Second  Edition,  page  78;  some  of  whose  language  I  here  quote. 

f  This  plan  has  been  adopted  in  his  "Family  and  Private  Prayer" — a  beautifrd 
manual  of  family  worship — by  the  late  Rev.  William  Berrian,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  New  York. 


2\6  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1785 

Psalter  can  be  more  beautiful  or  appropriate,  is,  in  my  own  opinion, 
the  better  plan ;  if  our  clergy  would  oiily  use  the  selections.  But 
unless  they  purpose  to  deliver  a  longer  sermon  than  usual,  or 
happen  to  be  pressed  for  time,  when  they  sometimes  give  us  the 
Sixth  Selection — a  very  short  one — they  rarely  do  use  the  selec- 
tions ;  and  we  are  left  by  the  present  book  exactly  where  we  were 
by  the  Church  of  England,  whose  use  of  the  whole  Psalter,  we 
meant  to  decline  as,  in  parts,  inappropriate  for  public  worship. 

To  Dr.  Smith,  exclusively  or  nearly  so,  I  assume,  that  we  owe 
the  hymns  in  the  Proposed  Book,  fifty-one  in  number,  which  are 
the  basis  of  the  great  variety  of  hymns  now  in  use  ;  and  he  proposed 
to  add  more.  In  fact,  as  will  be  seen  by  his  letter  to  Dr.  White, 
he  had  anticipated  the  Hymnal  of  the  Christian  year  and  of  our 
modern  service,  and  adds  that : 

On  the  great  festivals  of  the  Church  there  should  be  some  variety ; 
at  least  three  or  four  and  of  different  metres,  to  complete  the  Psalmody 
of  the  day.* 

He  sought,  it  is  evident,  through  the  hymns,  to  make  the 
Church  a  Holy  Catholic  Church — a  holy  Church  universal — and 
to  make  its  liturgy  a  book  of  prayer  for  all  people,  as  its  temples 
were  houses  of  prayer  for  them  also.  He  writes  to  Dr.  White  in 
April,  1786: 

My  congregations  were  exceedingly  pleased  with  the  two  Good  Fri- 
day Hymns,  and  also  the  two  Easter  Hymns,  but  what  above  all  seemed 
to  make  the  greatest  impression  was  the  two  Communion  Hymns,  No. 
XVII  beginning, 

My  God,  and  is  thy  table  spread  ? 

sung  after  the  sermon  as  an  invitation  to  the  Sacrament,  and  No.  XVIII 
beginning, 

And  are  we  now  brought  near  to  God  ? 

as  sung  after  the  Communion.  It  adds  a  solemnity  which  they  confessed 
they  had  not  experienced  before.  The  hymns  are  indeed  beautiful, 
and  every  line  of  them  applicable  to  the  blessed  occasion.  Have  j#» 
yet  introduced  them  in  this  way?f  ....  Every  communicant  will, 
before  another  day,  have  them  by  heart. 

*  Supra,  page  168. 

■f  Of  course  the  Proposed  Book  did  not  contain  a  rubric,  such  as  is  found  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  introduces  a  hymn,  or  a  part  of  a  hymn  as  a  portion 
of  the  Eucharistic  service.  And  as  a  matter  of  taste  I  think  that  the  hymns  had  better 
have  been  left  as  the  Proposed  Book  left  them. 


17S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  2\J 

Dr.  White  was  a  person  quite  different  in  most  respects  from 
Dr.  Smith.  Indeed,  between  the  two  men  we  may  say  that  there 
was  an  absolute  contrast.  Dr.  White  had  been  bred  by  pious 
parents  in  childhood  in  the  Church  ;  and  every  recollection  of  his 
earliest  life  must  have  been  associated  with  the  very  words  of  all 
its  liturgy.*  We  have  no  reason  to  think  that  if  he  could  himself 
have  controlled  the  thing  he  would  have  had  the  Convention  of 
1785  make  any  considerable  departures  from  the  old  service  books 
of  the  mother  Church,  but  those  required  by  the  Revolution, 
and  by  that  moderate  review  in  some  of  its  offices  suggested  by 
an  obvious  propriety. 

As  to  any  further  review,  he  desired  it,  so  far  as  he  desired  it  at 
all,  in  order  to  satisfy  weak  brethren,  who,  he  thought,  might 
otherwise  at  some  future  day  triumph  in  numbers  and  make  alter- 
ations dangerous  or  heterodox.  He  foresaw  even  at  that  day  what 
two  different  parties  in  the  Church  are  now  doing :  both  remain- 
ing in  the  fold,  but  both  in  different  ways  misrepresenting  its  doc- 
trines, violating  its  rubrics,  and  departing  from  or  corrupting  its 
practices ;  one,  in  a  disregard  of  services  appointed  for  her  saints, 
and  holy  days ;  in  a  substitution  for  hers  of  irregular  prayers ;  in 
the  constant  violation,  year  after  year,  of  a  plain  and  positive 
rubric,  which  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  minister  of  every  parish 
diligently,  upon  Sundays,  holy  days,  or  other  convenient  occa- 
sions, openly  in  the  Church,  to  catechise  children  sent  to  him  in 
the  Church's  catechism ;  in  the  low  views  of  her  great  Eucharistic 
service ;  in  the  obliteration  in  all  discourses  from  the  pulpit  of  the 
Church's  distinctive  character  and  high  office — and  in  other  mat- 

*  The  Bishop  alludes  to  this  affectingly  in  an  address  at  the  Consecration  on  the 
25th  of  October,  1827,  in  Christ  Church,  of  Bishop  H.  U.  Onderdonk  : 

"  He  feels  the  full  weight  of  an  occasion,  reminding  him  of  his  near  approach  to 
the  end  of  the  ministry  in  which  he  has  been  so  long  a  laborer;  and  when  during  the 
transaction  in  which  we  have  been  engaged,  he  occasionally  permitted  his  eye  to  rest 
on  the  spot  [his  paternal  pew,  now  his  own]  and  within  the  distance  of  a  few  feet,  where, 
in  the  days  of  his  boyhood,  he  joined  in  religious  services  within  these  walls;  when 
from  that  spot  his  attention  was  transferred  to  the  pulpit  at  his  elbow,  from  which, 
though  not  unfavored  by  domestic  instruction  and  encouragement,  there  sunk  into  his 
youthful  mind  the  truths  of  the  ever-blessed  Gospel,  and  from  which,  for  the  space  of 
fifty -five  years,  he  has  been  proclaiming  the  same  truths — with  what  effect  will  not  be 
known  until  the  day  which  shall  try  every  man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is,  but  certainly 
with  effect  far  short  of  his  wishes  and  of  his  prayers — there  results  from  these  recollec- 
tions and  from  others,  a  most  weighty  sense  of  the  responsibility  on  which  he  has  been 
so  long  acting." 


2l8  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

ters  also  reducing  that  Church  to  a  Methodist  level ;  and  the  other 
by  a  disregard  of  the  rubrics  just  as  blameworthy  as  that  prac- 
tised by  the  Methodistical  party  in  our  Church,  and  by  constrained 
and  unjustifiable  interpretations  of  our  present  prayer  book,  or  by 
a  professed  adherence  to  the  usages  of  the  Church  of  England,  as 
set  forth  in  some  of  her  earlier  service  books,*  betraying  her  chil- 
dren by  every  insidious  way  into  the  hands  of  that  "  Bishop  of 
Rome,"  whose  unscriptural  observances  our  Church  departed  from 
at  the  Reformation,  and  from  whose  "tyranny,"  and  whose  "  detest- 
able enormities,"  the  litanies  of  those  same  earlier  service  books 
prayed  that  the  good  Lord  would  deliver  us. 

Speaking  of  the  Convention  of  1785,  Bishop  White  says:f 

When  the  members  of  the  Convention  first  came  together  very  few, 
or  rather  it  is  believed  none  of  them,  entertained  thoughts  of  altering 
the  liturgy  any  further  than  to  accommodate  it  to  the  Revolution. \ 

And  Bishop  White  assigned  a  reason,  which,  with  his  nice 
sense  of  honor,  would  have  been  potential  why  none  should  be 
made,  a  reason  which  applied  to  delegates  from  all  the  States 
except  Virginia.     It  is  thus  expressed  by  him : 

*  The  books  of  King  Edward  VI. 

f  Memoirs,  page  102. 

%  Dr.  Stevens  Perry,  after  quoting  not  quite  fully  the  passage  from  Bishop  White's 
Memoirs,  to  which  I  refer,  and  after  giving  some  proofs  which  he  thinks  sufficient,  has 
concluded  that  this  idea  of  the  Bishop  was  unfounded.  I  have  the  greatest  respect  for 
the  judgments,  as  also  for  the  historical  learning  of  the  present  Bishop  of  Iowa. 
Nevertheless,  I  must  think  that  Bishop  White  was  likely  to  know  from  their  own  mouths 
and  from  other  testimonies,  what  thoughts  the  members  of  the  Convention  of  1785 
entertained  about  altering  the  old  liturgy;  more  likely  even  than  Dr.  Stevens  Perry  or 
any  man  whatever  now  living  is  upon  the  same  topics.  Are  not  Dr.  Perry's  evidences 
after  all  but  letters  addressed  chiefly  to  Bishop  White  himself,  and  letters  from  persons 
in  States  not  represented  in  the  Convention  of  1785  at  all  ?  At  any  rate  Bishop  White 
knew  what  thoughts  he  himself  entertained  on  the  matter,  and  when  he  says  that  it  is 
believed  that  "none"  of  the  members  "entertained  thoughts  of  altering  the  liturgy 
any  further  than  to  accommodate  it  to  the  Revolution,"  it  would  seem  certain  that  he 
did  not.  I  am  quite  aware  that  at  a  later  date,  as  is  shown  by  the  journals  of  the  Con- 
ventions of  1826,  and  by  his  own  memoirs,  Bishop  White,  yielding,  perhaps,  to  the 
views  of  Bishop  Hobart,  did  desire  that  the  Morning  Service  might  be  shortened  by 
making  the  use  of  the  Litany  optional  except  in  seasons  or  on  days  specially  peniten- 
tial. But  even  here,  I  am  not  certain  that  so  far  as  his  own  particular  views  were  con- 
cerned he  would  have  so  had  it.  (See  "  Bishop  White's  Memoirs,"  pages  52,  53,  251, 
259.)  It  is  absolutely  certain  that  he  never  varied  from  the  observance  of  what  was 
prescribed  by  rubrics ;  those,  with  his  honorable  integrity,  he  would  have  observed, 
however  little  he  might  have  either  liked  or  approved  what  they  enjoined. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  219 

There  being  no  express  authority  to  the  purpose,*  the  contrary  was 
implied  in  the  sending  of  Deputies  on  the  ground  of  the  recommenda- 
tion from  New  York,  which  presumed  that  the  book,  with  the  above 
exception,  should  remain  entire. f 

He  proceeds,  a  little  further  on  : 

Every  one,  so  far  as  is  here  known,  wished  for  alterations  in  the  differ- 
ent offices.  But  it  was  thought  at  New  York,  in  the  preceding  year,  that 
such  an  enterprise  could  not  be  undertaken  until  the  Church  should  be 
consolidated  and  organized.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  if  the 
same  opinion  had  been  continued  and  acted  on. 

The  Bishop  afterwards  goes  on  showing  how  little  hand  he  him- 
self had  in  making  the  book  in  its  substance.     He  says : 

The  alterations  were  prepared  by  another  sub-division  of  the  General 
Committee  than  that  to  which  the  author  belonged.  When  brought 
into  the  committee  they  were  not  reconsidered,  because  the  ground 
would  have  been  to  go  over  again  in  the  Convention.  Accordingly  he 
cannot  give  an  account  of  any  arguments  arising  in  the  preparatory  state 
of  the  business.  Even  in  the  Convention  there  were  but  few  points  can- 
vassed with  any  material  difference  of  principle. 

The  Bishop  notices  these  few  points.  The  only  ones  where  a 
change  in  the  old  book  was  made,  and  the  only  ones  important 
therefore  to  be  here  noticed,  are  these : 

One  about  a  form  of  Thanksgiving  for  the  4th  of  July,  the 
introduction  of  which  was  displeasing  to  him,  the  Bishop  tells  us ; 
and  to  oppose  which  he  availed  himself  of  a  privilege  which  he 
had  reserved  on  his  acceptance  of  the  Presidency  of  the  Conven- 
tion, to  deliver  his  opinion. 

A  second,  the  alteration  of  the  old  17th  Article,  about  Pre- 
destination.    The  Bishop  says  about  this  : 

Some  wished  to  get  rid  of  the  new  article  introduced  concerning  Pre- 
destination without  stating  anything  in  its  place.  This,  it  is  probable, 
would  have  been  better  than  the  proposed  article  which  professes  to  say 

something  on  the  subject,  yet,  in  reality,  says  nothing Although 

no  one  professed  scruples  against  what  is  there  affirmed,  yet  there  seemed 
a  difficulty  in  discovering  for  what  purpose  it  was  introduced.  The 
author  never  met  with  any  who  were  satisfied  with  it. 

*  Given  by  the  different  State  Conventions  to  the  Delegates,  I  suppose  the  Bishop  to 
mean. 

f  See  the  recommendation  referred  to  by  the  Bishop,  supra,  page  116. 


220  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/85 

He  continues: 

Less  prominent  debates  on  the  articles  are  not  here  noticed.  What- 
ever is  novel  in  them  was  taken  from  a  book  in  the  possession  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Smith.  The  book  was  anonymous,  and  was  one  of  the  pub- 
lications which  have  abounded  in  England,  projecting  changes  in  the 
established  articles. 

It  might,  too,  on  other  grounds,  be  set  down  almost  for  certain 
that  Dr.  White  did  not  like  some  of  the  alterations  themselves. 
He  was,  no  doubt,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  a  theologian  dis- 
tinguished by  acuteness  as  much  as  by  solidity  of  mind.  But  he 
was  nothing  of  a  rhetorician.  His  style,  though  perfectly  accu- 
rate, and  often  in  the  expression  of  feeling  deeply  affecting,  is  to 
the  general  reader,  frequently,  at  first  reading,  obscure,  and  some- 
times, until  thoroughly  comprehended,  rather  ineffective.  As  for 
what  we  call  elegance,  or  richness  of  thought  or  diction,  he  had 
little  of  either;  and  so  far  as  effects  marly  decorative  constitute  a 
part  of  worship,  he  had  but  a  slight  perception  of  them,  if  indeed 
he  had  any  at  all.  He  rather  abhorred  them  as  not  fit  agencies 
of  the  sanctuary.  I  am  not  meaning  to  say  that  he  was  not  deeply 
imbued,  in  religious  worship,  with  a  sense  of  the  true,  the  appro- 
priate and  the  becoming.  Undoubtedly  he  was  deeply  imbued 
with  them  all.  But  his  conceptions  and  his  expressions  tended  to 
plain  and  simple  forms,  rather  than  to  rich  and  decorated  ones. 
The  same  thing,  I  think,  was  true  in  regard  to  that  part  of  public 
worship  which  engaged  Dr.  Smith's  feelings  so  largely;  the  part 
so  much  assisted  by  music.  We  have,  in  historical  collections  of 
music,  some  compositions  which  we  know  that  Dr.  White  liked. 
But  my  impression  is  that  scientific  musicians  have  not  admired 
them  highly.  As  for  "  captivating  people  by  the  art  of  Psalm- 
singing,"  Dr.  White  would  have,  I  doubt  not,  resiled,  with  some- 
thing like  horror,  from  the  idea.  He  never  himself  gave  out  more 
than  two,  or  at  most  three,  verses  of  a  metrical  psalm.  And  as  for 
hymns — except  perhaps  at  Christmas — one  might  defy  the  oldest 
parishioner  of  the  United  Churches  to  cite  an  occasion  where  he 
ever  gave  out  one,  unless  where,  as  in  communion,  the  rubric 
obliged  him  to  do  so.*  Could  he  have  regulated  absolutely  the 
subject  of  singing  the  metrical  psalms,  he  would   have  affixed 

*  See  "  White's  Memoirs,"  2d  edition,  p.  256. — Note  N.  N 


I/S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  221 

a  tune  to  each  psalm ;  the  same  tune  always  to  be  sung  to  that 
psalm ;  and  not  more  than  from  twelve  to  twenty  tunes  to  be  ever 
heard  in  the  Church.* 

Undoubtedly  he  was  extremely  averse  to  changes  in  the  church 
music  or  to  any  exhibitions  from  the  organ  loft.  He  had  two  of 
the  finest  musicians,  Raynor  Taylor  and  Benjamin  Carr,  both 
Englishmen,  bred  in  the  cathedral  style,  that  ever  graced  the 
musical  science  of  Philadelphia,  in  one  of  his  own  churches,  St. 
Peter's ;  but  he  kept  its  music,  as  he  did  that  of  Christ  Church, 
and  of  St.  James'  after  it  was  built  and  became  one  of  the  United 
Churches,  down  to  a  plain,  old-fashioned  Church  of  England 
standard ;  and  even  had  a  book  prepared  whose  tendency  was  to 
limit  the  chants  and  tunes  for  the  metrical  psalm  or  hymn  to  the 
comparatively  small  number  already  stated,  and  these  of  a  simple 
kind — Mear,  Wells,  Philadelphia^  Old  Hundred,  St.  Martin's,  St. 
Michael's,  and  other  ancient  English  airs.  Pergolesi,  Palestrina, 
and  the  Italian  school  generally,  found  no  favor  in  his  ears. 
Little  of  this  was  after  the  ideas  of  Dr.  Smith,  whose  taste 
in  music  was  high  and  artificial.  I  ought,  perhaps,  to  add, 
while  I  say  what  I  do,  that  I  make  no  doubt  that  such  com- 
positions   as    Bishop    White    did    deem    appropriate,   he    would 

*  See  his  "  Thoughts  on  the  Singing  of  Psalms  and  Anthems,"  printed  A.  D.  1808. 
One  of  the  ministers  of  the  United  Churches,  Dr.  Abercrombie,  was  fond  of  hymns, 
particularly  of  the  hymn,  not  then  in  our  collection, 

"yesu,  Saviour  of  my  sou//' 

And  on  ending  a  sermon  on  one  occasion  began  with  that  line,  letting  the  choir — 
under  a  prearrangement,  of  course — take  it  from  his  mouth  and  proceed  with  the  rest 
of  the  hymn.  This  was  rather  effective,  and  would  probably  have  been  after  Dr. 
Smith's  taste.  Bishop  White,  the  Rector,  desired  that  such  a  thing  might  not  be 
repeated,  and  it  never  was  in  his  presence.  The  doctor,  who  was  not  easily  controlled, 
defended  his  action  and  the  necessity  of  hymns,  and  the  beauty  of  this  hymn.  "As 
for  me,"  said  the  Bishop,  "  whatever  thoughts  or  feelings  I  want  to  express,  whether 
of  praise,  of  gratitude,  of  penitence,  or  of  joy,  I  can  find  them  all  in  the  Psalms  of 
David."  Dr.  Abercrombie  answered  that  the  new  dispensation  rendered  necessary 
something  more  than  the  Psalms  of  David  would  give  us.  "  What,  sir,"  replied 
Bishop  White,  "do  you  make  of  the  inspiration  and  the  prophetic  character  of  David? 
And  as  for  the  hymn  which  you  specially  admire,  I  must  say,  Dr.  Abercrombie,  that 
its  expressions  of  devotion  are  not  expressions  of  that  sort  of  devotion  which  our 
Church  approves."  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  correspondence,  already  given  in  the 
body  of  this  book,  when  Dr.  Smith  asks  Dr.  White  if  he  knows  of  any  suitable  hymns 
on  the  Last  Judgment  and  the  Kingdom  of  Glory,  Dr.  White  replies  that  he  knows  of 
none  (supra,  p.  171.)  I  am  quite  aware  of  course  of  what  Bishop  Doane,  of  New  Jersey, 
states  of  the  Bishop's  last  hours,  and  of  the  two  hymns  then  read  to  him. 
■j-  A  tune,  by  his  friend,  Mr.  Hopkinson. 


222  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  Q1785 

have  had  richly  performed.  I  never  heard  of  his  objecting  to 
music  as  he  heard  it  in  the  cathedrals,  chapels-royal  and  collegi- 
ate churches  of  England.  On  the  contrary,  he  tells  us  himself 
that  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  where  he  was  invited  to  go  to 
hear  the  music — which  appears  to  have  been  especially  fine  at  that 
college — "  the  music  was  as  delightful  as  can  be  imagined."  No 
doubt  he  would  have  had  music  just  like  it  if  he  could  have  had 
it  in  our  own  larger  churches ;  and  would  have  said : 

"  There  let  the  pealing  organ  blow 
To  the  full-voiced  quire  below, 
In  service  high  and  anthems  clear 
As  may  with  sweetness  through  mine  ear 
Dissolve  me  into  ecstasies 
And  bring  all  Heaven  before  mine  eyes." 

What  he  abhorred  were  the  attempts  so  common  in  our  churches 
to  perform,  with  means  wholly  incompetent  to  produce  them,  great 
concerted  pieces  that  only  made  the  organ-loft  sometimes  ridicu- 
lous, sometimes  disgusting,  and  sometimes  distressing,  and  which 
tended  almost  of  necessity  to  such  indecent  and  irreverent  per- 
formance as  profaned  the  service  of  the  sanctuary. 

Indeed,  while,  no  doubt,  Dr.  White  ardently  desired  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Church,  his  means  of  extending  it  were  never  of 
any  very  popular  sort.  The  Church,  though  it  grew  surely  and 
fairly  well,  did  not  grow  rapidly  in  his  day.  I  think  that  he  con- 
sidered "that  what  made  our  Church  so  slow  of  growth  was  in  its 
favor,  and  that  what  accommodates  so  many  in  the  Roman,  Metho- 
dist and  other  dissenting  churches,  was  not  in  favor  of  theirs." 
No  greater  mistake  has  been  made  by  the  low  churchmen  of  this 
day  than  to  suppose  that  because  his  temper  was  sweet  and  his 
manners  and  character  lovely,  and  because  in  matters  of  mere 
taste  or  feeling  he  was  always  ready  to  give  way,  rather  than  to 
create  a  disturbance,  therefore  he  was  a  man  of  accommodating 
tempers  in  the  larger  and  more  important  concerns  of  the  Church. 
Like  the  great  Chatham,  in  all  that  concerned  great  principles, 
either  of  religion,  or  morals,  or  public  polity,  he  was  as  ////accom- 
modating as  he  was  original,  and  we  might  add  that  the  features 
of  his  mind  had  "the  hardihood  of  antiquity." 

The  character  of  Dr.  White  has  been  described  by  the  late  Dr. 


17S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  223 

Rufus  Wilmot  Griswold  in  his  "Republican  Court;  or,  American 
Society  in  the  Days  of  Washington."  The  description,  in  my 
opinion,  is,  in  the  main,  so  just  that,  though  in  part  it  has  slight 
relation  to  our  immediate  subject,  I  here  present  it  entire.  He  is 
speaking  now  of  Philadelphia,  and  says: 

At  the  head  of  the  clergy  stood  Dr.  White,  as  he  was  commonly 
called,  the  well-known  first  Bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Penn- 
sylvania. His  ecclesiastical  character  has,  in  recent  times,  been  greatly 
mistaken  by  both  the  extreme  High  and  the  extreme  Low  divisions  of 
his  own  denomination.  He  was  what  in  England  would  be  called  a 
historical  low-churchman  as  distinguished  from  the  ultra  school  of  Laud 
and  Philpotts,  but  was  very  far  removed  from  what  have  been  called 
low-churchmen  in  this  country.  Even  in  his  day,  when  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  extremely  feeble,  and  concessions  and  compromises  with 
other  denominations  were  matters  to  which  the  temptations  were  ex- 
treme, Bishop  White  defined  what  he  regarded  as  the  just  limits  of  both 
with  a  distinctness  and  precision  which  have  made  them  their  safest 
limits  since.  To  him  and  to  his  moderate  views  and  conciliatory 
temper  we  must  ascribe  the  fact  that,  while  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment of  England  and  the  very  name  of  Bishop  had  become  odious  in 
this  country,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  departed  so  very  little  in 
form,  while  not  departing  at  all  in  doctrine,  from  the  Established 
Church  of  England.  As  a  preacher  he  was  earnest  and  persuasive,  but 
he  seldom  fulminated  threats  or  judgments,  and  had  very  decided  views 
of  the  limits  of  clerical  responsibility.  He  shrank  from  no  proper 
responsibility,  but  he  had  too  high  a  sense  of  courtesy  and  too  just  a 
regard  for  even  the  most  delicate  of  rights  to  invade  with  freedom  the 
atmosphere  which  every  gentleman  feels  and  acknowledges  as  a  proper 
circle  for  himself  and  others.  He  was  the  man  of  his  time  for  his 
position.  His  prudence  saved  what  the  zeal  of  others  might  have  lost ; 
and  in  the  midst  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  difficulties  of  the  most 
discouraging  kind,  he  founded  that  establishment  which  has  grown  to 
be  one  of  the  most  majestic  structures  of  the  religion  of  the  republic. 
His  character  will  grow  larger  as  the  perspective  becomes  more  truly 
fixed  by  time,  and  if  it  were  separated  from  religious  parties,  posterity 
would  probably  place  his  name  after  the  names  of  Washington,  Mar- 
shall and  Hamilton  alone.  He  belonged  to  the  same  order  of  men, 
differing  but  in  the  sphere  of  his  action  from  either. 

It  might  be  inferred  from  the  correspondence  between  Dr.  White 
and  Dr.  Smith,  already  given,  that  Dr.  White  in  all  respects  ap- 
proved of  the  book.  I  understand  only  that,  being  placed  by  the 
convention  of  1785  upon  the  committee  to  put  the  book  into  form 


224  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1785 

for  the  press  and  to  publish  it,  he  gave  his  hearty  effort  to  this 
object,  rendering  an  almost  exclusive  work  in  what  was  done  in 
the  alterations  in  Calendar  and  some  assistance  also  in  the  adapta- 
tion of  the  Psalter,  in  the  way  preferred  by  Dr.  Smith  and  Dr. 
Wharton,  to  popular  reading  in  the  churches,  by  rejecting  psalms 
or  parts  of  psalms  incomprehensible  to  any  reader,  clerical  or  lay, 
except  after  he  had  sought  information  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  psalm  was  written — and  dividing  them  so  as  to  shorten 
that  part  of  the  service.  But  he  did  not,  as  we  know  from  his 
"Memoirs,"  himself  approve  of  this  plan.  His  poaposal  was  to 
take  the  whole  psalms,  select  such  as  fall  in  with  the  general 
subjects  of  divine  worship,  and  leave  the  officiating  minister  his 
choice  among  those  which  should  be  selected.  The  plan  finally 
adopted  by  the  majority  of  the  committee,  and  in  executing  which 
Dr.  White,  after  it  was  fixed  against  his  view,  co-operated  cordially, 
will  hereafter  appear.  Dr.  White's  liking  of  all  parts  of  the  book, 
or  of  it  in  the  main,  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  his  endeavors  to 
make  it  throughout  as  effective  as  possible.  He  disliked,  and 
strongly  disliked,  the  service  for  the  4th  of  July.  Yet  by  select- 
ing appropriate  lessons,  etc.,  he  made  it  more  effective  than  the 
convention  and  Dr.  Smith  had  left  it.*  It  was  enough  for  him 
that  the  convention  liked  the  book,  and  he  carried  out,  with  abso- 
lute honesty,  the  purpose  which  the  convention  had  in  appointing 
him,  with  Drs.  Smith  and  Wharton,  a  committee  to  get  it  impres- 
sively before  the  churches  for  adoption,  if  they  liked  it.  With  his 
perfect  candor  and  perfect  integrity  of  nature,  he  could  not  have 
done  otherwise.  But  it  is  quite  plain  that  he  desired  the  book  to 
be  considered  at  first  only  as  a  proposed  book ;  and  that  if  it  ever 
should  become  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States,  it 
should  become  so  only  upon  full  consent  of  all  the  churches  de- 
liberately and  authentically  expressed. 

The  key  to  what  I  suppose  were  Dr.  White's  feelings  and  action 
about  the  alterations,  so  far  as  they  were  now  made,  are  to  be 
found  in  his  desire  to  make  what — adopting  terms  from  our  political 
system — we  may  call  a  Federal  Church  as  distinguished  from  a 
variety  of  Slate  churches.  He  writes  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parker, 
August  6th,  1787  :f 

*  See  supra,  page  166. 

f  Perry's  "Half  Century  of  Legislation."     Vol.  I.,  pp.  35,  36. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  225 

I  am  most  sincerely  desirous  of  seeing  our  Church  throughout  these 
States  united  in  one  Ecclesiastical  Legislature,  and  I  think  that  any 
difficulties  which  have  hitherto  seemed  in  the  way  might  be  removed  by 
mutual  forbearance.  If  there  are  any  further  difficulties  than  those  I 
allude  to,  of  difference  in  opinion,  they  do  not  exist  with  me:  and  I 
shall  be  always  ready  to  do  what  lies  in  my  power  to  bring  all  to  an 
agreement. 

In  the  great  opportunities  for  observation  which  his  chaplaincy 
to  the  Congress  had  given  him,  he  had  seen  the  immense  injury 
which  the  nation  suffered  prior  to  1789  from  the  want  of  an  effec- 
tive general  government,  and  he  had  seen,  too,  the  immense  diffi- 
culties, arising  from  local  aims  and  jealousies,  of  effecting  such  a 
government.  He  saw  the  same  exact  two  things  in  the  Church, 
and  therefore,  in  his  mind,  the  first  thing  to  be  accomplished,  and 
this  even  before  the  consecration  of  any  bishop,  was  an  Union  of 
all  the  churches. 

He  has  explained  the  matter  himself*  "Certainly,"  says  he, 
"  the  different  Episcopalian  congregations  knew  of  no  union  before 
the  Revolution  except  what  was  the  result  of  the  connection 
which  they  had  in  common  with  the  Bishop  of  London,"  and  he 
adds : 

The  authority  of  that  Bishop  being  withdrawn,  what  right  had  the 
Episcopalians  in  any  State,  or  in  any  part  of  it,  to  choose  a  Bishop  for 
those  in  any  other?  And  till  an  union  was  effected,  what  is  there  in 
Christianity  generally,  or  in  the  principles  of  this  Church  in  particular, 
to  hinder  them  from  taking  different  courses  in  different  places  as  to  all 
things  not  necessary  to  salvation  ?  which  might  have  produced  different 
liturgies,  different  articles,  episcopacy  from  different  sources,  and,  in 
short,  very  many  churches,  instead  of  one  extending  over  the  United 
States ;  and  this  without  any  ground  for  schism,  or  of  the  invasion  of 
one  another's  rights. 

When  Dr.  White  looked  at  South  Carolina,  he  saw  a  church 
called  Episcopal  with  what  he  rightly  calls  "an  opposition  to  the 
very  principle  of  episcopacy,"  and  which  made  it  a  condition  of 
coming  into  the  church  convention  of  1785  that  no  Bishop  should 
be  settled  in  that  State. f  When  he  looked  at  Virginia,  he  saw  a 
commonwealth  whose  House  of  Burgesses,  most  of  whose  mem- 
bers professed  to  be  churchmen,  not  long  before  the  Revolution 
thanking  different  writers  who  sought  to  prevent  the  consecration 

*  Memoirs,  page  98,  2d  edition.  f  White's  Memoirs,  pp.  95,  96. 

'5 


226  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  Q1785 

of  a  Bishop  for  any  part  of  America — "  for  the  wise  and  well-timed 
opposition  they  had  made  to  the  pernicious  project  for  introducing 
an  American  Bishop."  *  In  Maryland  was  my  ancestor,  Dr.  Smith, 
a  man  of  strong  individual  views,  a  man  who  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  submit  his  great  powers  and  large  experience  to  one 
twenty  years  his  junior,  whom  he  remembered  as  his  pupil  at  the 
age  of  seven  years  and  till  his  adolescence,  and  who,  in  his  recent 
tract  of  the  "  Episcopal  Churches  Considered,"  had  himself,  from 
accidental  circumstances,  been  much  misunderstood,  and  was  sup- 
posed by  some  to  be  endangering  that  Episcopal  government, 
which  we  well  know  that  it  was  one  of  the  greatest  desires  of  his 
life  to  save  and  perpetuate.  In  New  Jersey  was  the  Rev.  Uzal 
Ogden,  an  ambitious,  troublesome  man;  never  a  churchman  but 
in  profession,  and  who  at  last,  ceasing  even  a  profession,  became  a 
Presbyterian  outright;  while  close  beside  him,  in  the  same  State, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Bradbury  Chandler,  who  had  declined  a  Bishop- 
ric from  Great  Britain,  a  churchman  as  high  as  Laud,  and  with 
quite  as  much  zeal  and  far  more  abilities  than  that  diminutive 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ever  possessed.  Finally,  in  Connecti- 
cut was  "  Samuel,"  soon  to  be  "  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Connecticut," 
with  his  mitre  and  all  the  accessories  of  an  English  prelate — a 
glorious  specimen,  indeed,  of  a  churchman — but  no  doubt,  as  Mr. 
Burke  said  of  Admiral  Keppel,  "  though  never  shewn  in  insult  to 
any  human  being,  somctliing  high"  with  ideas  that  the  whole 
South  would  scout  at  and  rebel  against.  How  was  the  sober  sense 
and  faithful  allegiance  to  his  views  of  Benjamin  Moore,  in  New 
York,  and  Abraham  Beach  and  William  Frazer,  in  New  Jersey, 
and  of  Robert  Blackwell  and  Samuel  Magaw,  in  Pennsylvania,  to 
solve  and  make  mingle  these  elements  apparently  so  immiscible  ? 
Dr.  White,  therefore,  was  ready  to  give  up  any  mere  forms,  how- 
ever much  he  liked  them,  to  any  one,  if  thereby  union  among  all 
the  churches  could  be  attained.  He  was  ready  to  retain  any  forms 
possible  to  be  retained,  if  thereby  that  same  result  could  be  se- 
cured. It  was  with  White  and  the  Church  as  it  was  with  Lincoln 
and  the  Union.  The  martyr  President  would  continue  slavery  if 
it  kept  us  one  nation.  He  would  declare  emancipation  if  that 
secured  the  blessed  end.f     Hence  when  "  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Con- 

*  See  Vol.  I.,  page  388. 

f. The  -same  heavenly  temper  was  exhibited  by  the  Bishop  in    1836    on   another 


I785 j  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  22J 

nccticut"  writes  to  Bishop  White,  in  1787,  "proposing  a  personal 
interview  with  him  and  Bishop  Provoost  previously  to  any  decided 
steps  being  taken  respecting  the  Liturgy  and  Government  of  the 
Church,  and  mentioning  the  old  Liturgy  as  the  most  likely  bond 
of  union,"  Bishop  White,  May  21st,  1787,  with  a  foresight  that  in 
his  day  seems  prophetic,  replies  : 

There  is  nothing  I  have  more  at  heart  than  to  see  the  members  of  our 
communion,  throughout  the  United  States,  connected  in  one  system  of 
Ecclesiastical  government  ;  and  if  my  meeting  of  you,  in  concurrence 
with  Bishop  Provoost,  can  do  anything  towards  the  accomplishment  of 
this  great  object,  my  very  numerous  engagements  shall  not  hinder  me 
from  taking  a  journey  for  the  purpose 

If  it  should  be  thought  advisable  by  the  general  body  of  our  Church 
to  adhere  to  the  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer  (the  political  parts 
excepted)  I  shall  be  one  of  the  first,  after  the  appearance  of  such  a  dis- 
position, to  comply  with  it  most  punctually. 

Further  than  this,  if  it  should  seem  the  most  probable  way  of  main- 
taining an  agreement  among  ourselves,  7"  shall  use  my  best  endeavors  to 
effect  it.  At  the  same  time,  I  must  candidly  express  my  opinion,  that 
the  review  of  the  liturgy  would  tend  very  much  to  the  satisfaction  of 
most  of  the  members  of  our  communion,  and  to  its  future  success  and 
prosperity.  The  worst  evil  which  I  apprehend  from  a  refusal  to  review 
is  this,  that  it  will  give  a  great  advantage  to   those  who  wish  to  carry 

occasion.  A  young  man,  the  Rev.  John  Walter  James — burning  with  apostolic  zeal — 
had  lately  been  invited  to  become  Assistant  Minister  in  Christ  Church.  The  church 
was  an  ancient  church,  with  high,  old-fashioned  square  pews,  and  the  congregation  was 
composed  of  the  aristocracy  of  Philadelphia.  Mr.  James  had  never  ministered  in  any 
large  city.  In  Christ  Church,  Meadville,  where  lie  had  been  before,  was  a  young, 
very  active,  enthusiastic  congregation.  Mr.  James  was  rather  disappointed  not  to  find 
exactly  the  same  sort  of  spirit  in  the  venerable  cote  of  which  he  was  now  to  take 
charge.  He  attributed  what  he  thought  a  lack  of  zeal  in  part  to  the  great  high,  old- 
fashioned  pews  of  which  we  speak.  At  any  rate,  he  thought  them  unsuited  to  modern 
necessities,  and  was  earnestly  desirous  to  change  them  to  those  common  in  the  present 
day.  A  considerable  portion  of  the  congregation  were  of  his  inclination.  He  pro- 
posed to  remodel  the  interior  of  the  church.  We  can  well  conceive,  after  reading  the 
passage  which  we  have  quoted  {supra,  page  217 — note),  describing  his  early  connec- 
tions with  the  pews  and  pulpit  of  this  church,  how  such  a  proposition  must  have 
affected  the  venerable  Bishop.  But  he  made  no  opposition  to  the  change.  If  it  was 
thought  by  those  around  him  to  promote  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  congregation,  he 
was  ready  to  make  it,  however  painful  to  his  own  feelings.  The  alterations  were 
begun  in  the  summer  of  1S36,  but  during  their  progress  both  Bishop  White  and  Mr. 
James  died.  Neither  ever  saw  the  completion  of  them.  As  it  turned  out,  the  alter- 
ations did  nothing  to  change  the  condition  of  the  parish.  Under  such  a  man  as  Mr. 
James  any  parish,  sooner  or  later,  would  have  prospered,  irrespectively  of  whether 
the  parishioners  sat  in  pews  with  high  backs  or  pews  with  low  ones. 


228  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1785 

the  alteration  into  essential  points  of  doctrine.*  Reviewed  it  will  un- 
questionably be  in  some  places,  and  the  only  way  to  prevent  its  being 
done  by  men  of  the  above  description  is  the  taking  it  up  as  a  general 
business. f  I  have  been  informed  that  you,  sir,  and  our  brethren  in 
Connecticut  think  a  review  expedient,  although  you  wish  not  to  be  in 
haste  in  the  matter.  Our  brethren  in  Massachusetts  have  already  done 
it.  The  Churches  in  the  States  southward  of  you  have  sufficiently  de- 
clared their  sentiments;   for  even  those  which  have  delayed  permitting 


*  This  sort  of  alteration  is  exactly  the  sort  which  the  authors  of  the  so-called  "  Re- 
formed Episcopal  Church"  who  vouch  Bishop  White  as  authority  for  their  liturgy, 
have  made  in  their  service-book  as  last  adopted.  Of  what  pertinence  to  their  case, 
then,  would  it  lie — were  it  true,  which  it  is  not — that  the  Proposed  Book  was  the 
work  of  Bishop  White  solely  or  chiefly  ;  that  book,  by  universal  concession,  never  hav- 
ing carried  the  alterations  into  any  such  points;  and,  on  that  account,  having  been 
abandoned  by  the  so-called  "  Reformed  Episcopal  Church." 

What  Bishop  While  would  have  thought  of  the  Episcopate  of  the  said  "Church" 
may  be  inferred  from  a  passage  in  that  great  charge  of  his,  "  On  the  Sustaining  of  the 
Unity  of  the  Church,  in  Contrariety  to  Disorder,  Disunion  and  Division,"  page  13.  It 
was  delivered  in  1 83 1,  in  his  sunset  of  life,  when  mystical  lore  enabled  him  fully  to 
see  those  coming  events  which,  even  then,  cast  their  shadows  before.     He  says: 

"  There  is  sometimes,  in  conversation,  proposed  the  question  whether  in  the  event 
of  a  consecration  performed  by  one  bishop  only,  the  act  would  be  valid  ?  That  with 
us,  such  a  bishop  would  do  what  is  contrary  to  the  obligations  under  which  he  has 
placed  himself  in  a  solemn  appeal  to  God  for  his  sincerity  and  in  a  pledge  given  for 
the  same  publicly  to  the  Church,  and  that  the  recipient  of  what  is  supposed  to  be  of  the 
character  conveyed  is  a  partaker  of  the  crime,  is  obvious. 

"Still  there  may  be  thought  to  remain  the  question  of  validity,  and  may  be  antici- 
pated with  apprehension  as  what,  at  some  future  time,  may  be  found  an  easy  expedient 
for  the  introducing  of  division  into  the  Church. 

"  Although  the  enormity  has  not  been  practised  by  any  bishop  of  this  Church,  yet 
there  cannot  be  denied  the  possibility  that  it  may  occur  hereafter,  either  with  the 
avowed  abandonment  of  religious  and  moral  principle  or  by  the  operation  of  that  sort 
of  professed  piety  whick,  in  pursuance  of  what  is  supposed  to  be  a  righteous  end,  con- 
siders it  as  superseding  the  claims  of  integrity  and  truth.  What  would  be  the  effect, 
then,  of  the  form  of  consecration?  In  answer,  the  opinion  is  confidently  expressed 
that  it  would  be  A   NULLITY. 

.  ..."  In  certain  supposable  circumstances,  the  act  of  consecration  by  a  single 
bishop,  disengaged  from  provisions  not  in  themselves  essential,  is  valid.  But  if  a 
bishop  of  our  Church,  which  requires  the  concurrence  of  two  of  his  brethren,  should 
set  the  requisition  at  defiance,  in  violation  of  his  promise,  pledged  with  an  invocation 
of  the  notice  of  the  all-seeing  eye  of  God,  there  is  no  hesitation  in  expressing  the 
opinion  that  the  only  effect  would  be  THE  GUILT  attached  to  it." 

I  Exactly  the  same  views  were  expressed  by  the  Bishop  forty-five  years  later.  (See 
his  charge  of  1831,  "On  the  Sustaining  of  the  Unity  of  the  Church  in  Contrariety  to 
Disorder,  Disunion  and  Division,"  p.  18.) 

"  It  is  also  probable  that  extreme  tenaciousness  and  reluctance  to  moderate  alteration 
will  give  vigor  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  ill-digested  projects  for  reform  without 
measure  and  without  end.  We  may  foresee  that  if  such  a  spirit  should  be  dominant 
in  our  Church  it  will  be  promotive  of  confusion  and  of  every  evil  work.     It  should, 


I785]  REV.    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  22<J 

the  use  of  the  new  book,  did  it  merely  on  the  principles  of  the  want 
of  Episcopal  order  among  them.* 

W?  thus  sec  the  relations  of  Dr.  White  to  the  matter  of  altera- 
tions in  the  liturgy.  The  only  part  of  the  Proposed  Book  which 
we  know  that  he  actively  opposed  was,  as  we  have  already  said, 
the  introduction  of  a  form  of  Thanksgiving  for  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  to  be  used  on  the  4th  of  July.  And  this  apparently  on  a 
moral  ground,  because  that  service  put  some  of  the  clergy,  who 
had  conscientiously  opposed  the  Revolution,  into  an  attitude  which 
compelled  them  to  utter  sentiments  which  they  did  not  feel.  We 
have  quoted  in  our  former  volume f  what  he  has  recorded  on  that 
topic.  At  the  same  time  we  know  that  he  speaks  of  his  "frequent 
collisions"  with  Dr.  Smith, %  which,  as  their  general  relations  were 
apparently  harmonious  and  even  affectionate,  we  must  rather  infer 
had  relation  to  Dr.  Smith's  urgency  for  alterations  in  the  Liturgy, 
and  to  his  modes  of  effecting  them,  and  of  getting  them  intro- 
duced into  the  churches. 

Mr.  Charles  Henry  Wharton — the  committee's  third  member — 
so  well  known  now  a,s  Dr.  Wharton,  of  Burlington,  N.  J.,  was  a 
person  different  every  way  from  either  Dr.  Smith  or  Dr.  White. 
He  was  born  in  Maryland,  of  a  family  distinguished  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  and  was  educated  at  St.  Omer's,  in  France,  for  the 
Romish  priesthood,  into  which  he  was  ordained  and  for  some  time 
officiated.  He  was  converted  to  the  Protestant  faith,  as  his  Rom- 
ish enemies  alleged,  by  a  beautiful  woman,  whom  he  afterwards 
married. §  He  had  no  special  affinities  nor  tastes  for  the  liturgy 
of  the  Church  of  England.     He  says  in  one  letter  :|| 

I  think  the  simplifying  of  the  liturgy  should  be  among  the  first  objects 
of  the  Convention.  Whatever  was  left  with  a  view  of  reconciling 
parties  at   the  period   of  the   Reformation,   or  retained   as  suitable  to 

therefore,  be  guarded  against  not  only  by  the  vigilance  and  the  discountenance,  but 
also  by  the  moderation  of  all  who  take  pleasure  in  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  our 
Zion." 

*  Perry's  "  Half  Century  of  Legislation,"  Vol.  I.,  pages  346,  347. 

t  Page  575. 

\  See  Wilson's  "  Life  of  White,"  page  20. 

§  This  lady,  who  is  buried  in  the  grounds  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  became  insane  ; 
a  judgment  the  papists — who  dealt  damnation  round  the  land,  on  each  they  judged  their 
foe — alleged  for  his  apostacy  from  Rome.     His  arguments  they  left  unanswered. 

||  Perry's  "  Half  Century  of  Legislation,"  Vol.  I.,  page  107. 


23O  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1785 

Cathedral  service,  may  safely  be  omitted  by  the  American  Church.  Per- 
haps such  an  opportunity  never  occurred  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles 
of  setting  a  rational,  unexceptionable  mode  of  worship. 

He  adds  in  another :  * 

If  no  alterations  in  the  liturgy  are  to  be  made  but  such  as  the  Revo- 
lution requires,  there  is  little  need  to  think  much  upon  the  subject,  unless, 
perhaps,  omissions  be  not  deemed  alterations.  My  decided  opinion  is 
that  our  prayers  are  too  numerous  as  well  as  the  repetitions.  I  shall 
draw  up  a  motion  on  this  head  which  I  mean  to  make  at  the  Conven- 
tion, if  you  should  approve  it. 

However,  though  a  sound  thinker  in  the  main;  a  very  finished 
scholar,  a  true  and  elegant  gentleman,  and  an  able  controversial 
writer,  Dr.  Wharton  was  no  debater  at  all,  nor,  unless  provoked, 
was  his  spirit  in  the  least  militant.  The  habits  of  the  cloister  clung 
somewhat  about  him  all  his  life,  and  his  part  in  the  Convention  I 
do  not  suppose  to  have  been  very  active. f 

We  hardly  pardon  him — who  lived  long  at  Worcester,  England, 
and  must  have  often  enjoyed  the  service  at  its  fine  Cathedral — 
writing : 

Whatever  was  retained  (in  the  English  liturgy)  as  suitable  to  Cathe- 
dral may  safely  be  omitted  by  the  American  Church. 

Why?  were  not  services  exactly  those  of  the  Cathedral  and 
differing  from  the  humblest  parish  church  only  in  their  choirs,  to 
be  performed  in  America  ?  And  were  not  Cathedrals  themselves 
— the  Bishop's  Church — soon  to  be  demanded  by  the  voice  of  the 
Church  throughout  our  dioceses  ?$ 

*  Perry's  "Half  Century  of  Legislation,"  Vol.  I.,  page  108. 

fSee  Sprague's  "Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,"  Vol.  V.,  page  335. 

J  On  this  very  26th  of  May,  1879,  as  I  write,  I  open  the  Living  Church,  a  journal 
of  Illinois,  and  read  from  the  Western  Church,  a  journal  of  Chicago,  this  passage : 

"The  American  Church  longs  for  the  constitutional  fatherly  government  of  its 
Fathers  in  God.  In  manifold  ways  the  heart  of  the  Church  demands  it.  It  wants  a 
true  Bishop's  Church  in  the  See  city,  in  which  the  educational,  charitable  and  mission- 
ary work  of  the  See  is  to  centre.  It  needs  for  its  cathedral  chapter,  a  body  in  which 
every  diocesan  interest  shall  be  represented,  the  diocese  at  large,  the  institutions,  the 
missionary  work,  the  city  parishes,  the  cathedral  clergy,  the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy. 
It  needs  the  Bishop  at  the  head  of  the  chapter,  the  informing  factor,  the  guiding  prin- 
ciple, the  Father  of  his  Flock,  the  Bishop  in  the  truly  ordered  See." 

This  would  have  been  the  language  of  Dr.  Smith;  and  his  pen,  I  should  think, 
would  never  have  stricken  out  that  ancient  rubric  of  our  mother  Church — 

"In  choirs  and  places  where  they  sing,  here  followeth  the  anthem." 


I/S5]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  23  I 

Nevertheless,  he  was  not  inclined  to  see  the  old  Prayer  Book 
reduced  to  the  dead  level  of  modern  American  low  churchmen. 
By  an  accident  apparently,  the  Convention  had  obliterated  all  the 
Saints'  days.     In  writing  to  Dr.  White,  he  says  : 

Your  idea  of  suiting  the  lessons  to  the  several  seasons  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical year  agrees  perfectly  with  mine.  .  .  .  As  to  the  general  Calendar 
I  apprehend  the  Committee  has  power  to  alter  it  as  the  Convention 
judged  proper  to  omit  the  Saints'  days.  I  would  be  for  retaining, 
however,  the  names  of  a  few,  such  as  Lady  Day,  Michaelmas,  All  Saints, 
with  the  Apostles''  Days,  St.  Stephen  s  and  Innocents.  These  three  last 
being  Scripture  festivals  should  not  be  omitted,  I  mean  a  commemora- 
tion of  Scriptural  persons  and  martyrs.  All  Saints  of  more  modern  date 
should  be  expunged." 

I  have  gone  thus  at  large  into  the  history'  of  the  Proposed  Book 
and  of  the  parts  which  different  people  had  in  its  composition,  be- 
cause of  the  great  ignorance  prevailing  and  of  the  gross  misrepre- 
sentations made  on  the  subject.  How  completely  all  the  great, 
essential  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England  are  presented  in  it, 
and  how  little  ground  the  preachers  of  the  so-styled  Reformed 
Episcopal  Church,  who  have  referred  to  it  as  justifying  their  schism, 
have  had  for  their  reference  to  it,  will  appear  sufficiently  in  these 
pages. 

In  addition  to  his  great  labor  in  the  matter  of  the  Proposed 
Book,  Dr.  Smith  was  chairman  of  the  two  other  principal  com- 
mittees appointed  by  the  convention  of  1785;  one  of  them  being 
to  prepare  a  draft,  the  form  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Constitution 
for  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America;  the  other  for  preparing  and  reporting  a  plan  for  ob- 
taining the  consecration  of  Bishops,  together  with  an  Address  to 
the  Most  Reverend  the  Archbishops  and  the  Right  Reverend  the 
Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  for  that  purpose. 


We  may  reasonably  infer,  too,  that,  perhaps,  with  some  reduction  of  force,  it  might 
have,  expressed  the  views  of  Bishop  White,  who,  in  his  charge  of  1S31,  after  saying 
that,  in  his  view,  a  Bishop  should  not  be  made  to  take  full  charge  of  any  parish,  and 
that  a  third  part  of  the  parochial  duty  of  any  church  of  which  a  Bishop  was  Rector 
should  be  performed  by  an  assistant,  says  : 

"  But  when  there  are  taken  into  the  account  our  rapidly  increasing  population  with 
which  we  may  hope  for  a  proportionate  increase  of  our  Church,  it  cannot  be  useless 
to  keep  in  view  a  matured  system  of  a  higher  grade  than  our  present  provisions,  ana 
to  be  accomplished  by  degrees,  although  the  full  accomplishment  be  so  distant  that  (he 
youngest  among  us  may  not  be  expected  to  witness  it,  while  they  may  subserve  it  by 
incipient  measures." 


232  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Q1785 

Though  the  labor  of  preparing  and  drafting  the  Ecclesiastical 
Constitution  did  not  fall  largely  upon  Dr.  Smith,  he  was  bound, 
of  course,  as  chairman  of  his  committee,  to  give  to  it  his  intelli- 
gent thought  and  care;  and  though,  in  the  other  committee,  a 
large,  perhaps  the  larger,  share  of  labor  was  borne  by  others,  we 
have,  in  petitions  drafted  by  his  own  pen,  the  record  of  his  work. 
The  first  address  to  the  English  Bishops  was  drawn  by  Dr.  White. 
Its  date  is  October  5th,  1785.  The  Proposed  Book  had  not  yet 
been  seen  by  the  English  Bishops,  and  reports  had  got  abroad 
exaggerating  the  alterations  that  had  been  made  and  misstating 
some  matters  of  importance.  The  English  Bishops,  in  a  commu- 
nication to  the  clerical  and  lay  members,  dated  London,  February 
24th,  1/86,  and  filled  with  expressions  of  kindness,  stated  that,  while 
they  were  disposed  to  make  every  allowance  for  the  difficulties 
which  embarrassed  the  Convention  of  1785,  they  could  not  help 
being  afraid  that  in  the  proceedings  of  that  convention  some  altera- 
tions in  the  Liturgy  had  been  adopted  or  intended  which  those 
difficulties  did  not  seem  to  justify.     They  proceed  : 

Those  alterations  are  not  mentioned  in  your  address  ;  and  as  our 
knowledge  of  them  is  no  more  than  what  has  reached  us  through  private 
and  less  certain  channels,  we  hope  you  will  think  it  just  both  to  you 
and  to  ourselves  if  we  wait  for  an  explanation.  For  while  we  are 
anxious  to  give  every  proof  not  only  of  our  brotherly  affection,  but  of 
our  facility  in  forwarding  your  wishes,  we  cannot  but  be  extremely 
cautious  least  we  should  be  the  instruments  of  establishing  an  ecclesias- 
tical system  which  will  be  called  a  branch  of  the  Church  of  England, 
but  afterwards  may  possibly  appear  to  have  departed  from  it  essentially 
either  in  doctrine  or  in  discipline. 

Dr.  Smith  drafted  a  reply,  although  before  being  sent  it  was 
considerably  modified  by  Mr.  Jay,  one  of  the  convention,  never 
much  of  a  churchman,  we  may  add,  and  of  a  disposition  possibly 
somewhat  jealous,*   who    thought    its    terms   rather  obsequious. 

*  See  Mr.  Jay's  Remarks  on  "  Induction  " — "  Life  of  John  Jay,"  vol.  I.,  pp.  434- 
442;  and  his  correspondence  with  Judge  Peters  on  the  subject  of  Hamilton's  relations 
to  the  formation  of  Washington's  Farewell  Address.  Nothing,  I  think,  but  some 
latent  jealousy  of  the  great  first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  could  have  induced  so  un- 
fortunate an  argument  as  that  contained  in  Mr.  Jay's  letter  to  Judge  Peters  of  March 
29th,  181 1 — an  argument  completely  demolished  by  the  great  paper  of  Horace  Binney 
on  the  formation  of  the  Farewell  Address.  See  "  Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania,"  vol.  I.,  page  249,  and  Mr.  Binney's  Essay. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  233 

The  body  of  its  ideas  were  retained.  We  give  it  here,  more  es- 
pecially as  it  shows  that  Dr.  Smith  was  not  obstinately  set  in 
favor  of  his  new  book,  but  was  ready  to  receive,  as  he  afterwards 
did  receive,  and  at  once  adopt  many  suggestions  for  its  im- 
provement. 

To  the  Most  Reverend  and  Right  Reverend  Fathers  in  God,  the  Arch- 
bishops and  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  : 

Most  Worthy  and  Venerable  Prelates  ! 

The  clerical  and  lay  deputies  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  this  day  assembled  in  Convention 
in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  had  the  honour  to  receive  your  letter 
dated  London,  February  24th,  1786,  in  answer  to  their  address  of 
October  5th,  1785. 

Your  Christian  condescension  and  goodness,  on  this  occasion,  have 
filled  our  hearts  with  the  most  lively  sentiments  of  gratitude ;  and  we 
desire  to  offer  our  thankful  acknowledgments  to  your  venerable  Body, 
for  having  taken  the  earliest  opportunity  of  attending  to  our  address, 
with  that  true  and  affectionate  regard  which  you  have  always  shown  to 
that  branch  of  the  Episcopal  Church  planted  by  your  great  and  pious 
Predecessors  in  America.  We  are,  moreover,  greatly  encouraged  by 
the  fatherly  assurance  you  give  us  that  "nothing  is  nearer  your  heart 
than  the  wish  to  promote  our  spiritual  welfare;  to  be  instrumental  in 
procuring  for  us  the  complete  exercise  of  our  holy  religion,  and  the 
enjoyment  of  that  ecclesiastical  constitution  which  we  sincerely  believe 
to  be  truly  apostolical,  and  for  which  (we  trust)  the  most  unreserved 
veneration  will  ever  be  maintained  by  our  Church  in  America."  We 
are  also  happy  to  be  further  assured  that,  on  your  "  parts,  you  will  use 
your  best  endeavours  (which  you  give  us  hopes  will  be  successful)  to  ac- 
quire a  legal  capacity  of  complying  with  the  prayer  of  our  address." 

The  Joy  which  we  feel  on  this  occasion  would  therefore  be  complete, 
were  it  not  for  the  apprehensions  you,  our  venerable  Fathers,  have  sug- 
gested to  us,  "  that  in  the  proceedings  of  our  last  convention  some 
alterations  may  have  been  adopted  or  intended  which  the  difficulties  of 
our  situation  do  not  seem  to  justify ;  "  but  we  are  greatly  comforted,  at 
the  same  time,  by  the  kind  assurance  which  you  give  us,  and  our  firm 
dependence  on  your  goodness,  "  that  you  are  disposed  to  make  every 
allowance  which  candor  can  suggest  for  those  difficulties;  and  that  you 
think  it  just,  both  to  yourselves  and  to  us,  to  wait  for  an  explanation." 

Nevertheless,  while  we  regret  that  any  difficulties  have  arisen  from 
misrepresentations  of  our  proceedings  through  any  private  or  uncertain 
channels;  we  are,  at  the  same  time,  greatly  edified  with  the  caution 
exhibited  to  us,  by  those  whom  we  revere  as  the  chieF  Guardians  and 


234  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  Q17S5 

Depositories,  under  God,  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  whereof  we 
profess  ourselves  members. 

From  those  doctrines  no  essential  deviations  were  intended  by  the 
convention,  and  we  are  confident  it  will  appear  that  none  have  been 
made  in  the  book  which  hath  been  proposed,  and  which  we  thought  it 
but  just  and  candid  to  publish  to  the  world,  and  particularly  to  have  it 
presented  to  your  Lordships  before  any  Clergyman  nominated  to  the 
office  of  a  Bishop  among  us  should  be  sent  to  you  for  consecration. 
In  the  meantime  it  was  to  be  our  endeavour  to  remove  as  far  as  possible 
every  objection  that  might  remain  or  be  apprehended  among  our  Civil 
Rulers;  to  which  we  believe  nothing  could  more  contribute  than  an 
open  and  candid  publication  of  the  Alterations  which  seemed  necessary 
or  expedient,  either  in  a  civil  or  religious  view.  We  conceived,  more- 
over, that  this  declaration  of  our-doctrines  and  public  worship  would 
contribute  effectually  to  do  away  any  prejudices  against  our  Church, 
which  may  still  be  found  among  our  fellow-citizens  at  large ;  these 
prejudices,  we  are  persuaded,  are  few  and  inconsiderable.  For  some 
time  past  they  have  happily  been  subsiding,  and  your  Lordships  will 
undoubtedly  approve  of  every  measure  which  a  sister  Church  can  adopt 
towards  completing  the  circle  of  Christian  Charity  and  forbearance. 

Some  alterations  became  necessary  upon  the  principles  set  forth  in 
the  preface  to  the  proposed  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  but  we  apore- 
hend  that  there  are  none  such  as  can  induce  your  venerable  Body  to 
consider  us  as  having  adopted  "an  ecclesiastical  system  which  will  be 
called  a  branch  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  which  may  appear  to 
have  departed  from  it  essentially  either  in  doctrine  or  discipline."  We 
have  already  expressed  our  hope  that  there  is  no  such  departure,  or, 
should  it  appear  to  your  Lordships  that  there  is  any,  we  shall  be  happy 
to  have  it  pointed  out  to  us. 

Our  book  is  only  a  proposal,  although  we  must  say  it  is  a  very  ac- 
ceptable one  to  those  of  our  Church  who  have  had  the  greatest  oppor- 
tunity of  being  made  acquainted  with  it.  But  we  have  not  established 
it,  nor  do  we  consider  ourselves  as  having  authority  so  to  do  in  the 
Churches  of  any  of  these  States  till  they  are  fully  organized  and  have 
their  Bishops  in  Council  and  Government  with  them.  When  those 
shall  be  sent  for  consecration  to  the  Church  of  England,  they  will  be 
informed  in  what  points,  if  any,  there  may  appear  to  be  essential  devia- 
tions either  in  doctrine  or  discipline;  and  they,  as  well  as  the  Conven- 
tions in  the  different  States,  will  undoubtedly  pay  all  that  deference  to 
your  exalted  characters  which  we  know  to  be  necessary  for  maintaining 
a  perpetual  harmony  and  union  with  the  Church  of  England  in  all 
essentials. 

We  therefore  Pray,  That  as  our  Church,  in  sundry  States,  hath  already 
proceeded  with  nominations  of  Bishops  and  in  others  may  soon  proceed 
with  the  same  ;   you  will   be  pleased   to  give  us  as  speedy  an  answer  to 


I/85]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  235 

this,  our  second  address,  as  in  your  fatherly  regard  you  were  pleased  to 
give  to  our  former  one;  as  it  is  our  wish  that  some  at  least  of  the  per- 
sons nominated  should  embark  for  England,  so  as  to  put  themselves 
under  your  protection  and  patronage,  against  the  meeting  of  Parliament 
next  winter.  We  are  with  great  and  sincere  Respect 

Most  worthy  and  venerable  Prelates. 

It  is  no  part  of  our  purpose  to  give  an  ecclesiastical  history  of 
the  day  further  than  as  Dr.  Smith  was  connected  with  it.  Suffice 
it,  therefore,  to  say  that  when  the  Proposed  Book  was  received  in 
England — while  the  Bishops  expressed  their  regret  at  several  ver- 
bal alterations  of  the  necessity  or  propriety  of  which  they  were  not 
satisfied,  and  saw-  with  grief  that  the  Nicene  and  Athanasian  creeds 
had  been  omitted — they  did  not  deny  that  the  essential  doctrines 
of  the  faith,  common  to  the  two  churches,  had  been  retained. 
Strange  to  add,  the  principal  thing  faulted  apparently  by  the 
Bishops  was  the  omission  of  the  passage  in  the  Apostles'  Creed 
which  affirms  the  descent  of  Christ  into  Hell — an  affirmation  con- 
fessedly inserted  but  as  a  contradiction  of  an  early  heresy  and 
without  Scriptural  authority  beyond  the  passage  in  the  First 
Epistle  of  St.  Peter  iii.  19,  20,  speaking  of  Christ's  preaching  unto 
the  spirits  in  prison;  a  passage  considerably  involved  in  obscurity, 
as  all  will  agree.  It  subsequently  appeared,  moreover,  that  even 
this  ground  of  objection  was  much  urged  apparently  by  no  one 
but  the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells ;  a  venerable  prelate,  we  may 
indeed  admit,  eminent  as  well  for  his  theological  learning  as  for 
his  exemplary  life  and  conversation;  but  not  one  who  should  have 
had  power  to  enforce  an  objection,  the  least  weighty  of  several, 
none  of  which  were  very  weighty,  that  might  have  been  made. 

The  changes  chiefly  desired  by  the  English  Bishops  (except  an 
adoption  of  the  Athanasian  Creed)  were  made  by  the  convention 
almost  sua  sponte  upon  the  suggestion  of  them,  and  our  Bishops 
were  consecrated  while  the  Proposed  Book  thus  altered  was  be- 
fore the  Church  for  adoption,  if  the  respective  dioceses  liked  it. 

While  Dr.  Smith  was  at  Huntingdon,  Pennsylvania,  where  he 
owned  a  large  body  of  lands  which  he  had  gone  to  look  after,  Dr. 
White  received  from  England  communications  from  the  two 
Archbishops  expressing  the  regrets  above  mentioned,  but  withal 
giving  a  general  assurance  that  the  desired  consecration  would  be 
given;  expressing  their  hope  that  a  change  on  the  subject  above 
mentioned  as  unsatisfactory  would  be  made. 


236  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPOXDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

Dr.  White  immediately  by  letter  informed  Dr.  Smith  of  the 
communications  received  from  the  two  Archbishops,  and  that  the 
Committee  of  Correspondence,  to  whom  power  had  been  given  to 
call  a  General  Convention,  had  called  it  to  meet  at  Wilmington, 
in  Delaware,  on  the  10th  of  October,  1786.  Dr.  Smith  replies  as 
follows  : 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Lancaster,  August  18th,  1786,  4  o'clock  p.  m. 

Dear  Sir:  At  Carlisle,  on  my  return  from  Juniata,  on  the  15th 
instant,  I  received  your  letter  giving  me  an  account  of  the  last  com- 
munications from  the  two  Archbishops  of  England.  I  had  never  any 
doubt  but  that  on  seeing  our  Book,  such  great  and  liberal  Prelates  as 
they  are  known  to  be  would  take  a  pleasure  to  protect  and  patronize  our 
Church,  as  a  great  and  growing  branch  of  their  own. 

I  presume  any  advice  I  could  give  concerning  the  calling  of  the  Con- 
vention would  be  now  too  late,  as  a  majority  of  the  Committee  have 
approved  the  measure.  If  that  be  the  case,  I  can  have  no  objection 
either  to  the  time  or  place  of  meeting.  But  I  can  see  little  use  in  giving 
the  Convention  the  trouble  to  meet  in  pursuance  of  anything  which  you 
have  mentioned  to  me  from  the  letter  of  the  Archbishops.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  of  a  general  compliance  with  the  alterations  they  recom- 
mend (the  Athanasian  creed  excepted)  whenever  any  new  edition  of  the 
Prayer  Book  shall  be  directed  by  a  convention  having  ecclesiastical  and 
spiritual  authority  to  ratify  a  book  for  our  Church.  And  till  such  con- 
vention can  be  had  (which  certainly  will  not  be  next  October)  we  have 
already  determined  not  to  enter  upon  the  consideration  of  any  amend- 
ments or  alterations  whatever.  Should  we  take  up  those  hinted  by  the 
Archbishops,  how  shall  we  refuse  to  go  upon  those  also  which  have  been 
proposed  by  different  State  Conventions?  And  may  we  not  then  at  the 
end  of  next  Convention,  at  Wilmington  (could  we  possibly  get  seven 
States  together  in  October),  leave  our  Book  in  a  far  more  exceptionable 
point  of  view  with  those  Prelates,  and  many  of  our  own  Church,  than 
it  now  is?  For  I  think  it  stands  now  with  as  few  objections  to  it  both 
in  America,  and  for  what  appears,  in  England,  as  ever  it  will.  There 
are  also  some  things  proposed  or  recommended  by  the  Archbishops 
which  cannot  be  complied  with  by  some  States  at  all,  or  at  least  not 
without  calling  their  conventions,  and  perhaps  altering  some  part  of 
their  ecclesiastical  constitutions,  all  which  would  require  more  time 
than  to  October,  and  probably  would  be  productive  of  much  confusion. 

However,  you  and  the  other  members  of  the  Committee  will  find  me 
ready  to  meet  every  difficulty,  and  to  do  my  utmost  for  the  general 
good  of  the  Church,  but  I  think  we  have  no  difficulties  left  unless  we 
create  them  among  ourselves. 


1/86]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2$/ 

Much  do  we  owe  to  the  two  worthy  Archbishops.  I  need  not  write 
more.     I  am  pushing  to  be  home  on  Sunday,  and  will  strive  to  be  at 

Philadelphia  about  Wednesday  next,  the  23d  instant 

In  haste,  yours,  Wm.  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White. 

After  receiving  intelligence  from  Dr.  White  of  the  letter  from 
the  Archbishops,  two  letters  came  by  the  same  packet:  one  to  Dr. 
White  and  one  to  Dr.  Smith,  from  the  Rev.  Alexander  Murray, 
prior  to  the  Revolution  a  missionary  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  and  who, 
though  returning  to  England  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
ever  felt  a  warm  interest  in  the  ecclesiastical  welfare  of  the  col- 
onies. Roth  letters  were  under  cover  to  Dr.  Smith.  The  one  to 
Dr.  White,  and  a  letter  from  Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  Wharton  enclosing 
it,  here  follow : 

Rev.  Dr.  Murray  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

London,  July  28,  1786. 
Dear  Sir  :  Your  favor  of  4th  April  I  received  the  5th  instant,  via 
Liverpool,  with  the  remaining  parts  of  your  liturgy;  but  I  had  before 
then,  just  as  the  June  packet  was  ready  to  sail  for  New  York,  taken  the 
liberty  to  remind  the  Archbishop  of  your  Church  concerns,  and  he  wrote 
you  accordingly  by  that  opportunity  which  made  it  unnecessary  for  me  also 
to  advise  you  that  your  consecration  bill  had  at  last  been  passed,  though 
late,  owing  to  your  own  delays.  This  you  had  besides  announced  in 
all  our  newspapers  by  the  packet.  I  waited  then  to  send  you  the  act 
printed.  I  pressed  it  twice  a  week,  and  with  some  threats.  In  the  end 
I  expect  it  in  a  few  days.  But  as  the  "  Mediator,"  for  your  port,  is  to 
sail  to-morrow  I  thought  it  proper  in  the  meantime  to  give  you  the 
material  parts  of  the  act,  which  is  that  it  gives  authority  to  either  of  our 
Archbishops  to  consecrate  Bishops  for  foreign  nations,  "who  profess  the 
worship  of  Almighty  God  according  to  the  principles  of  the  Church  of 
England,  they  having  the  good  learning,  soundness  of  faith,  and  purity 
of  manners  of  the  candidates  ascertained  to  them,"  (the  Bishops.) 
The  other  parts  of  the  act  are  much  the  same  with  that  for  consecrating 
priests,  which  I  sent  you.  I  need  hardly  remark  the  liberal  catholic 
spirit  the  act  is  stamped  with.  It  leaves  room  for  admitting  local  differ- 
ences in  lesser  matters  which  affect  not  the  vitals  of  our  holy  religion 
and  the  constitution  of  our  Apostolic  Episcopal  Church. 

Yours  affectionately, 

Alexander  Murray.* 
Rev.  Dr.  White. 

*  For  a  sketch  of  this  minister  of  our  Colonial  Church,  see  Appendix  No.  III. 


238  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/86 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Rev.  Dr.  White. 

Chester,  September  11,  1786. 
Dear  Sir  :  The  enclosed  is  from  Dr.  Murray,  but  I  suppose  can  con- 
tain nothing  new,  as  mine  which  accompanied  it  is  of  an  older  date  than 
our  last  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  If  you  have  anything 
further  of  importance  to  communicate,  or  when  you  have  I  shall  expect 
to  hear  from  you.  I  shall  go  over  to  Annapolis  next  week,  which,  being 
at  the  election  of  the  Senate,  will  give  me  an  opportunity  of  doing  some 
necessary  business  with  gentlemen  whom  I  could  not  otherwise  meet  till 
November.  I  would  wish  to  have  a  little  time  before  the  General  Con- 
vention to  think  of  what  may  be  proper  to  be  done,  or  can  with  pro- 
priety be  done,  respecting  the  requisitions  of  the  English  Bishops. 
You  know  my  apprehensions,  etc.  I  hope  you  will  bestow  your  serious 
thoughts  upon  the  business,  viewing  it  in  proper  lights. 

Yours,  William  Smith. 

Rev.  Dr.  White, 

Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia. 

The  Convention  called  for  Wilmington,  assembled  there,  as  in- 
vited, on  the  10th  of  October,  1786.  It  lasted  but  two  days. 
The  letters  of  the  English  Archbishops  being  taken  into  consider- 
ation, The  Descent  into  Hell — the  expression  of  a  belief  in  which 
had  been  omitted  from  the  Apostles'  Creed  as  given  in  the  Pro- 
posed Book — was  restored  by  a  majority,  to  the  liturgy.  The 
Nicene  Creed  was  restored  by  unanimous  vote.  The  Athanasian 
was  voted  against — seventeen  votes  to  three.  The  States  were 
rather  curiously  divided  on  the  subject  of  the  admission  of  this 
last  creed.  In  New  Jersey  the  only  persons  favoring  its  readmis- 
sion  were  laymen,  Henry  Waddell  and  Joshua  Maddox  Wallace, 
Esqs.,  voting  for  its  admission  against  the  clergy  of  the  State — 
Mr.  Uzal  Ogden  and  the  excellent  William  Frazier,  of  Amwell. 
In  Delaware  its  support  came  from  one  clergyman,  the  Rev. 
Sydenham  Thorne;  he  voting  against  the  laity  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Wharton.  The  vote  of  Pennsylvania,  clergy  and  laity  alike,  went 
solidly  against  the  restoration.  Maryland  took  no  part  in  any  of 
these  questions  from  the  fact  of  not  being  represented  in  this  Con- 
vention. 

In  this  Convention,  Dr.  White,  Dr.  Provoost  and  Dr.  Griffith 
were  recommended  to  the  English  Bishops  by  the  members  of  this 
Convention  for  consecration  to  the  Episcopal  orders.  Little  or  no 
mention  is  made  of  Dr.  Smith  in  the  proceedings  of  this  short 


I786]  HE  J'.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  239 

assembly,  beyond  his  appointment  (after  Dr.  Provoost,  who  was 
President  of  the  Convention)  on  a  committee,  a  majority  of  which 
had  power  to  call  a  General  Convention  to  meet  in  Philadelphia, 
and  beyond  what  is  disclosed  in  the  following  extract  from  the 
minutes  themselves : 

It  was  moved  and  seconded,  that  a  Committee  be  appointed  to  draft 
a  letter  from  this  Convention,  to  the  Archbishops  of  England,  in  an- 
swer to  their  late  letters. 

And  the  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  accordingly — Dr.  Smith, 
Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Wharton. 

This  Committee  retired,  and  after  some  time  returned  and  reported 
a  letter,  which,  after  a  few  amendments,  was  agreed  to  as  follows  : 

TO  THE  ARCHBISHOPS  OF  CANTERBURY  AND  YORK. 

Most  Worthy  and  Venerable  Prelates: 

In  pursuance  of  your  Graces'  communications  to  the  Standing  Committee  of  our 
Church,  received  by  the  June  packet,  and  the  letter  of  his  Grace  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  of  July  the  4th,  enclosing  the  Act  of  Parliament  "  to  empower  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  or  the  Archbishop  of  York,  for  the  time  being,  to  consecrate  to 
the  office  of  a  Bishop,  persons  being  subjects  or  citizens  of  countries  out  of  his 
Majesty's  dominions,"  a  General  Convention,  now  sitting,  have  the  honor  of  offering 
their  unanimous  and  hearty  thanks  for  the  continuance  of  your  Christian  attention  to 
this  Church,  and  particularly  for  your  having  so  speedily  acquired  a  legal  capacity  of 
complying  with  the  prayer  of  our  former  addresses. 

We  have  taken  into  our  most  serious  and  deliberate  consideration  the  several  matters 
so  affectionately  recommended  to  us  in  those  communications,  and  whatever  could  be 
done  towards  a  compliance  with  your  fatherly  wishes  and  advice,  consistently  with  our 
local  circumstances,  and  the  peace  and  unity  of  our  Church,  hath  been  agreed  to,  as, 
we  trust,  will  appear  from  the  enclosed  Act  of  our  Convention,  which  we  have  the 
honor  to  transmit  to  you,  together  with  the  Journal  of  our  proceedings. 
We  are,  with  great  and  sincere  respect, 

Most  worthy  and  venerable  prelates, 

Your  obedient  and  very  humble  servants, 
(By  order)  Samuel  Provoost,  President. 

In  General  Convention: 
At  Wilmington,  in  the  State  of  Delaware, 
October  II,  1786. 

What  I  suppose  to  be  the  original  draft  of  this  document  thu  s 
signed,  which  is  before  me,  is  in  the  handwriting  of  Dr.  Smith, 
Chairman  of  the  Committee. 

On  the  24th  of  October,  1786,  a  Convention  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  Maryland  met  at  Annapolis,  in  that  State, 
and  chose  Dr.  Smith  its  President.  The  following  instrument  of 
writing  was  laid  before  the  Convention,  and  is  entered  among  its 
proceedings,  viz.: 


240  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

State  of  Maryland,  Chester  Parish,  Kent  County, 
In  Vestry,  19th  of  October,  1786. 
To  Whom  it  may  Concern: 

Whereas,  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  rector  or  minister  of  this 
Parish,  and  Principal  of  Washington  College,  in  the  same,  hath  com- 
municated to  us  an  instrument  of  writing  certifying  his  nomination  or 
election  to  the  office  of  Bishop  by  his  brethren,  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal clergy  of  this  State,  in  Convention  met,  and  due  notice  hath  been 
given  of  the  same  in  our  Parish  Church,  immediately  after  Divine  Ser- 
vice on  the  Lord's  Day,  to  the  intent  that  if  any  notable  cause  or  im- 
pediment, touching  his  sufficiency  in  learning,  soundness  in  the  faith 
and  purity  of  manners,  could  be  shown  why  he  should  not  be  conse- 
crated to  that  sacred  office,  the  same  might  be  made  known  to  us.  Now 
we  do  think  it  our  duty,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  hereby  to  declare 
and  testify  that  no  such  cause  or  impediment  hath  been  made  known  to 
us:  and  further,  that  the  said  William  Smith  hath  for  six  years  last  past 
been  personally  and  intimately  known  to  us  as  the  minister  of  this 
parish,  during  which  time  he  hath  been  regarded  and  distinguished 
among  us  as  an  orthodox,  learned  and  truly  evangelical  preacher,  yield- 
ing us  both  satisfaction  and  edification  by  his  ministry,  doctrine  and 
conversation.  We  further  testify  that  during  that  period  he  hath  also 
acquitted  himself  with  such  zeal  and  abilities  in  the  general  service  of 
the  Church,  and  in  laying  permanent  foundations  for  the  advancement 
and  support  of  religion  and  learning  in  this  State,  that  we  consider  him 
as  a  benefactor  to  our  country  and  worthy  of  its  regard  and  esteem. 

John  Scott, 

R.  Buchanan, 

Jere.  Nichols, 

St.  Leger  Everitt,  j»  Vestry. 

Simon  Wilmer, 

Jno.  Tilden  Kennard, 

Marmaduke  Tilden. 

John  Sturges,  Church-Warden. 

The  Convention  then  adjourned  to  meet  at  Chestertown,  on  the 
fourth  Tuesday  in  May,  1787. 


I/84]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH  D.  D.  241 


CHAPTER   XLIX. 

Matters  Contemporaneous  with  and  Collateral  to  the  General  Eccle- 
siastical Councils — The  Proposed  Book,  etc. — Church  Convention  in 
Maryland,  1784 — Efforts  to  Prevent  the  Apostacy  of  the  Methodists 
— Second  Commencement  of  Washington  College — General  Washington 
Honors  it  with  his  Presence— Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West  about  the  Funds 
for  the  College — Christian  Frederick  Post — His  Death  and  a  Notice 
of  him — A  Friendly  Letter  from  Dr.  Muhlenberg  to  Dr.  Smith — 
Ordination  by  Bishop  Seabury  of  a  Pupil  of  Dr.  Smith  Prepared  for 
Holy  Orders  by  the  Latter  and  Recommended  for  them  by  him — 
Bishop  Seabury's  great  Satisfaction  with  the  Candidate  —  Church 
Convention  in  Maryland,  a.  d.  1785— Death  of  Dr.  Charles  Ridgely, 
a  Brother-in-law  of  Dr.  Smith— The  Rev.  John  M.  Languth— Death 
of  General  John  Cadwalader,  a  Nephew  of  Dr.  Smith  by  Marriage —  ' 
Dr.  Smith  Preaches  at  the  Funeral— Letter  of  Dr.  Smith's  Wife  re- 
ferring to  the  Deaths  of  Dr.  Ridgely  and  General  Cadwalader — 
Maryland  Convention  of  1787 — Ordination  of  Dr.  Smith's  Kinsman, 
Richard  Channing  Moorf— Efforts  to  have  the  Charter  of  the  Col- 
lege at  Philadelphia  Restored — Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West. 

Not  to  interrupt  the  unity  of  a  narrative  of  some  length  about 
the  General  Conventions,  Proposed  Book,  etc.,  we  have  compre- 
hended two  or  three  years  in  the  last  preceding  chapters,  without 
much  reference  to  other  matters.  But  with  Dr.  Smith's  active 
mind  and  active  hands  and  active  frame,  there  were  always  works 
collateral  to  his  main  work,  and  these,  operating  on  the  sides  of 
his  opus  magnum,  whatever  this  last  might  be,  he  was  always 
carrying  on  as  steadily  as  he  was  the  great  work  itself. 

To  a  few  of  these  in  the  years  1784,  1785  and  1786  we  will  now 
advert.  On  the  26th  of  October,  1784,  a  Convention  of  the 
Clergy  and  Lay  Delegates  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Maryland 
was  held  at  Chestertown,  in  Maryland.  Dr.  Smith  presided,  and 
the  Rev.  William  West  acted  as  secretary.  The  Rev.  Messrs. 
Andrews,  Keene,  Thompson  and  McPherson  were  present  The 
following  additional  Constitutions  respecting  the  future  discipline 
and  government  of  the  Church  in  Annual  or  General  Conventions 
were  agreed  upon,  viz. : 

I.   General  Conventions  of  this  Church,   consisting  of  the  different 
16 


242  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  j'l/84 

orders  of  clergy  and  laity  duly  represented  (agreeably  to  the  Fourth 
Constitution  aforesaid)  shall  have  the  general  cognizance  of  all  affairs, 
necessary  to  the  discipline  and  good  government  of  this  Church,  in- 
cluding particularly  the  following  matters,  viz. :  The  power  and  author- 
ity necessary  for  receiving,  or  excluding  from  Church  privileges,  scan- 
dalous members,  whether  lay  or  clerical,  and  all  jurisdiction  with  regard 
to  offenders  ;  the  power  of  suspending  or  dismissing  clergymen  from  the 
exercise  of  their  ministry  in  this  Church  ;  the  framing,  approving  of, 
or  confirming  all  canons,  or  laws,  for  Church  government;  and  such  alter- 
ations, or  reforms,  in  the  Church  service,  liturgy,  or  points  of  doctrine, 
as  may  be  afterwards  found  necessary  or  expedient,  by  our  Church  in 
this  State,  or  of  the  United  States  in  General  Convention.  And  in  all 
matters  that  shall  come  before  the  Convention,  the  clergy  and  laity  shall 
deliberate  in  one  body;  but  if  any  vote  shall  be  found  necessary,  or  be 
called  for  by  any  two  members,  they  shall  vote  separately ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  clergy  in  their  different  orders,  according  to  their  own  rules, 
shall  have  one  vote ;  and  the  laity,  according  to  their  rules,  shall  have 
another  vote ;  and  the  concurrence  of  both  shall  be  necessary  to  give 
validity  to  any  measure. 

II.  Future  Conventions  shall  frame  and  establish  rules,  or  canons, 
for  receiving  complaints  ;  and  shall  annually  appoint  a  committee,  con- 
sisting of  an  equal  number  of  clergy  and  laity  (including  the  bishop, 
when  there  shall  be  one  duly  consecrated,  among  the  number  of  the 
clergy),  which  committee  shall  have  standing  authority,  government, 
and  jurisdiction,  agreeably  to  such  rules  as  may  be  given  them  for  that 
purpose,  in  all  matters  respecting  the  discipline  and  government  of  the 
Church,  that  may  arise  or  be  necessary  to  be  proceeded  upon,  during 
the  recess  or  adjournment  of  General  Conventions  :  all  which  rules  shall 
be  framed,  and  jurisdiction  exercised  in  conformity  to  the  Constitution 
and  Laws  of  this  State  for  the  time  being.* 

The  reader  will  have  already  noted  how  broad  and  comprehen- 
sive was  the  cast  of  Dr.  Smith's  churchmanship.  We  have  seen 
in  our  first  volume  f  that  he  was  inclined  to  bring  into  the  Church 
— if  the  Bishop  of  London  approved  of  the  idea — the  whole  of  the 
Lutheran  clergy  in  Pennsylvania.     He  was  equally  desirous,  and 


*  In  the  copy  of  these  additional  constitutions  in  the  collection  of  early  journals  in 
the  possession  of  the  present  Bishop  of  Iowa — Dr.  Perry — which,  though  evidently  in- 
serted after  the  rest  of  the  pamphlet  was  printed,  is  continuously  paged  with  the  pre- 
ceding sheets,  the  words  "  or  general  "  in  the  heading,  and  "the  following  matters, 
viz.,"  in  paragraph  I.  are  omitted;  the  parenthetical  clause  "(of  all  order?)  "  is  added 
to  the  assertion  of  "the  power  of  suspending  or  dismissing  clergymen;  "  and  the  words 
"or  rule"  appended  at  the  close  of  the  paragraph.  There  are  several  variations  in 
typography,  which,  as  they  do. not  at  all  affect  the  sense,  it  is  hardly  important  to  notice. 

f  Page  40J. 


I7S4]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  243 

even  more  so,  to  prevent  the  divisions  made  by  the  Wesleya  from 
becoming  permanent.  While  he  could  not  sec  in  the  state  of  the 
English  Church  even  in  the  days  of  those  zealous  souls,  any  justi- 
fication or  even  any  excuse  for  their  conduct,  and  although  no 
schism  was  then  yet  contemplated,  he  could  not  fail  to  discern  how 
that  the  then  existing  state  might  naturally  enough  induce  such 
"experience  and  practice"  as  they  had  brought  about.  And  as 
America  seemed  the  field  on  which  the  Wesleys,  Whitefield,  Coke, 
and  Asbury  were  likely  to  reach  their  greatest  success,  and  as  our 
untutored  thousands — black  and  white — were  a  class  in  more  dan- 
ger of  being  captivated  than  the  better  instructed,  even  if  too 
much  neglected,  people  of  England — Dr.  Smith  watched,  with 
the  most  lively  attention,  all  that  the  leaders  of  this  sect  were 
doing,  and  earnestly  sought  to  effect  a  return  to  a  state  of  junc- 
ture with  them ;  if,  without  a  sacrifice  of  the  great  principles  of 
the  Church,  such  a  return  could  be  accomplished.  The  follow- 
ing letter  illustrates  his  interest  in  the  matter.  Its  writer  was 
the  Rev.  John  Andrews,*  a  native  of  Maryland,  but  who  gradu- 
ated at  the  College  of  Philadelphia  under  Dr.  Smith,  was  after- 
wards a  tutor  in  the  grammar  school  of  the  institution,  and  was 
now  the  worthy  rector  of  St.  Thomas'  parish,  Baltimore  county, 
in  the  State  of  Maryland. 

The  Rev.  John  Andrews  to  Dr.  Smith. 

Baltimore,   December  31,   1784. 

Dear  Sir:  I  promised  to  give  you  some  account  of  what  should  pass 
at  our  proposed  conference  with  Dr.  Coke.  It  is  an  account,  however, 
which  I  fear  will  be  no  ways  interesting,  and  from  which  at  any  rate 
you  can  derive  little  satisfaction. 

At  the  appointed  hour,  which  was  six  in  the  evening,  he  did  not  fail 
to  attend  us;  and  brought  with  him  Mr.  Goff  ana  Mr.  Asbury.  We 
drank  tea,  and  conversed  on  indifferent  subjects.  The  doctor  was  full 
of  vivacity  and  entertained  us  with  a  number  of  little  anecdotes  not 
disagreeably.  At  length  I  took  occasion  to  observe,  that  we  had  seen 
Mr.  Wesley's  letter  of  September  last  addressed  to  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr. 

*  In  the  year  17S5,  having  received  the  degree  of  a  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  his  old 
master's  new  college — Washington — at  Chestertown,  Dr.  Andrews  returned  to  Philadel- 
phia, where,  at  a  later  date,  he  was  made  at  first  (a.  d.  1789)  a  Professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  afterwards  (a.  D.  i 79 1 )  Vice-Provost,  and  finally  (a.  d.  1810) 
Provost  of  the  same.  He  continued  in  that  office  till  February,  1813.  He  died  on 
the  29th  of  the  following  month. 


244  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1784 

Asbury;  as  also  a  book  entitled,  "The  Sunday  Service  of  the  Metho- 
dists:" that  we  were  happy  to  find  from  these  publications  that  the 
people  called  Methodists  were  hereafter  to  use  the  same  liturgy  that  we 
make  use  of,  to  adhere  to  the  same  articles,  and  to  keep  up  the  same  three 
orders  of  the  clergy ;  that  these  circumstances  had  induced  us  to  hope, 
that  the  breach  which  had  so  long  subsisted  in  our  Church  might  at 
length,  in  America  at  least,  be  happily  closed  :  that  we  could  not  think 
so  unfavorably  of  the  gentlemen  who  were  at  the  head  of  that  society, 
as  to  suppose  they  could  persist  in  separating  from  us,  merely  for  the 
sake  of  separating;  or  cherish  in  their  breasts  so  unkind  a  spirit,  as 
would  not  suffer  them  even  in  doing  of  the  very  same  things  that  we  do, 
to  have  any  satisfaction  without  doing  them  in  a  different  manner;  with 
such  variations  in  point  of  form  and  other  circumstances,  as  may  create 
an  invidious  distinction  where  there  is  no  real  difference:  that  the  plan 
of  Church  government  which  we  had  instituted  in  this  State,  was  a  very 
simple,  and,  as  we  trusted,  a  very  rational  plan:  that  it  was  to  be  exer- 
cised by  a  convention  consisting  of  an  equal  number  of  laity  and  clergy; 
and  having  for  their  president  a  bishop  elected  by  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy:  that  this  bishop  was  to  differ  from  a  common  presbyter  in 
nothing  else  than  in  the  right  of  presiding  in  the  Convention,  of  or- 
daining ministers,  and  administering  confirmation  after  baptism  to  as 
many  as  desired  it :  that  such  an  episcopacy,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
possessed  all  the  powers  requisite  for  spiritual  purposes,  would  not  upon 
any  occasion  or  to  any  person  be  either  dangerous  or  burdensome.  It 
could  not  be  said  to  entangle  men  more  than  Mr.  Wesley's  episcopacy 
entangled  them.  What  occasion  then  could  there  be  for  a  separation 
from  us  on  the  score  of  government  ?  And  as  to  articles  of  faith  and 
form  of  worship,  they  already  agreed  "with  us.  If  it  would  not  be  so 
grateful  to  them  to  have  their  preachers  ordained  by  a  presbyter  taken 
from  among  us  and  consecrated  a  bishop,  what  hindered  but  that  Dr. 
Coke  might  be  so  consecrated ?  We  could  see  no  impropriety  in  having 
two  bishops  in  one  State,  one  of  which  might  always  be  elected  from 
among  the  people  called  Methodists,  so  long  as  that  distinction  should 
be  kept  up  among  us. 

To  all  this  Dr.  Coke  made  the  following  reply:  That  indeed  he  scarce 
knew  what  answer  to  give  us;  as  such  an  address  had  neither  been  fore- 
seen nor  expected:  that  any  propositions,  however,  that  we  should 
think  proper  to  make  on  the  subject  he  could  transmit  to  Mr.  Wesley. 
Perhaps  we  were  strangers  to  their  itinerant  and  circuitous  maxims:  that 
it  was  not  proposed  that  any  of  their  ministers  should  ever  have  a  fixed 
residence:  and  that  for  his  own  part  he  was  inclined  to  think  that  our 
two  churches  might  not  improperly  be  compared  to  a  couple  of  earthen 
basins  set  afloat  in  a  current  of  water,  which,  so  long  as  they  should 
continue  to  float  in  two  parallel  lines,  would  float  securely:  but  the  mo- 
ment they  began  to  converge  were  in  danger  of  destroying  each  other. 


1784]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  245 

Mr.  Asbury  was  pleased  to  add — that  the  difference  betwesn  us  lay 
not  so  much  in  doctrines  and  forms  of  worship  as  in  experience  and 
practice.  He  complained  that  the  Methodists  had  always  been  treated 
by  us  with  abundance  of  contempt  ;  and  that  for  his  own  part,  though 
he  had  travelled  over  all  parts  of  this  continent,  there  were  but  four 
clergymen  of  our  Church,  from  whom  he  had  received  any  civilities. 
In  expressing  these  sentiments,  however,  he  did  not  mean  to  throw  any 
reflection  upon  Mr.  West  and  myself,  whom,  from  the  accounts  he  had 
received  concerning  us,  he  regarded  as  worthy  characters. 

Mr.  West  begged  it  might  be  well  understood,  that  in  holding  this 
discourse  with  them,  we  acted  altogether  in  a  private  capacity,  wholly 
unauthorized  so  to  lo  by  the  Church  to  which  we  belonged ' ;  and  that  in 
his  opinion,  the  only  material  point  to  which  it  concerned  us  at  present 
to  enquire  into  was  simply  this — Was  the  plan  upon  which  the  Methodists 
were  now  proceeding  to  act,  irrevocably  fixed  ?  Dr.  Coke  answered,  that 
there  'was  no  person  who  took  more  time  than  Mr.  Wesley  to  deliberate 
upon  his  plans,  and  none  70I10  after  he  had  deliberated  upon  them  was 
more  prompt  and  decided  in  the  execution  of  them. 

Upon  this  the  subject  was  dropped,  and  in  a  short  time  after  they 
took  their  leave  of  us. 

A  day  or  two  after  I  took  the  liberty  to  wait  on  Dr.  Coke  at  his  lodg- 
ings. I  expressed  a  wish,  that  they  could  be  induced  to  give  rise  to 
their  orders  in  a  regular  manner;  and  this  I  observed  they  might  do, 
and  yet  still  continue  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  and  remain  as 
distinct  a  body  from  us  as  they  might  think  proper.  If  they  did  not 
esteem  it  unlawful  to  connect  the  succession,  I  contended,  that  it  was 
their  duty  to  connect  it,  from  motives  of  charity  and  of  policy.  By 
such  compliance  their  departure  from  their  brethren  would  be  less  con- 
siderable, and  they  would  have  fewer  prejudices  to  encounter  with. 

Dr.  Coke  did  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge,  that  it  would  be  more  con- 
sistent indeed,  and  more  regular  to  connect  the  succession  ;  and  that  the 
time  was  when  the  Methodists  might  have  been  gained  by  a  little  con- 
descension. But  it  was  now  too  late  to  think  of  these  things,  when 
their  plans  were  already  adopted  and  in  part  even  executed  ;  that  he 
himself  had  received  ordination  agreeably  to  this  new  system,  and  con- 
ferred it  on  others.  He  set  forth  in  his  turn  the  great  contempt  and 
aversion  with  which  the  Methodists  had  always  been  treated  in  England, 
by  the  generality  of  the  bishops,  as  well  as  by  the  laity  and  clergy;  that 
when  one  of  their  preachers  had  an  inclination  to  come  over  to  this 
country  with  Lord  Cornwallis'  army  under  the  character  of  a  chaplain, 
Mr.  Wesley  could  not  prevail  on  the  Bishop  of  London  to  ordain  him  ; 
that  some  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  had  ventured  to  per- 
form service  in  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon's  chapel  had  been  prose- 
cuted in  the  Court  of  Arches;  that  Bishop  Newton  in  his  last  dying  charge 
to  his  clergy  solemnly  enjoined  them,  that  they  should  never  cease  to 


246  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1784 

oppose  the  Methodists  :  and  upon  the  whole  that  such  was  the  temper 
of  the  English  prelates,  that  they  would  much  rather  choose  that  the 
whole  body  of  the  Methodists  in  England,  though  so  very  numerous, 
should  be  lost  to  the  Church  by  a  total  separation,  than  that  they  should 
continue  any  longer  with  it. 

To  those  particulars  I  made  the  best  reply  that  I  was  able,  apologized 
for  the  great  trouble  I  had  given  them,  and  then  took  my  leave  of  them 
in  the  most  friendly  and  affectionate  manner. 

Thus  ended  our  negotiation  which  served  no  other  purpose  than  to 
discover  to  us,  that  the  minds  of  these  gentlemen  are  not  wholly  free  from 
resentment,  and  it  is  a  point  which  among  them  is  indispensably  neces- 
sary that  Mr.  Wesley  be  the  first  link  of  the  chain  upon  which  their  Church 
is  suspended. 

Although,  as  Dr.  Andrews  observes,  Dr.  Smith  could  not  derive 
much  satisfaction  from  a  letter  which  revealed  nothing  so  much 
as  the  fact  that  the  estrangement  of  Coke  from  the  Church  was 
likely  to  become  a  schism, — one,  too,  founded  on  the  sprctce  injuria 
formcc  much  more  than  on  an  earnest  contention  for  any  faith  ever 
delivered  to  the  saints — this  effort  at  reunion  was  not  without  re- 
sults of  a  permanently  historic  kind.  The  feelings  of  these  gentle- 
men— whose  separation  was  so  much  animated  by  "personal  re- 
sentment"— came  under  the  influence  of  that  great  physician  Time. 
Before  many  years  they  were  "pricked  in  their  hearts"  and  went 
to  a  friend  of  Smith  to  inquire  "what  they  should  do." 

The  following  letter  (of  1791)  of  Mr.  Coke  to  Bishop  White,  is 
a  memorable  document  indeed  ;  its  confessions  and  aspirations  but 
the  sequela;  of  the  efforts  made  in  1784  and  narrated  as  above,  by 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Andrews  : 

Richmond,  April  24,  1791. 

Right  Reverend  Sir:  Permit  me  to  intrude  a  little  on  your  time 
upon  a  subject  of  great  importance. 

You,  I  believe,  are  conscious  that  I  was  brought  up  in  the  Church  of 
England,  and  have  been  ordained  a  presbyter  of  that  Church.  For 
many  years  I  was  prejudiced,  even  I  think,  to  bigotry  in  favor  of  it :  but 
through  a  variety  of  causes  and  incidents,  to  mention  which  would  be 
tedious  and  useless,  my  mind  was  exceedingly  biassed  on  the  other  side 
of  the  question.  In  consequence  of  this,  I  am  not  sure  but  I  went 
further  in  the  separation  of  our  Church  in  America  than  Mr.  Wesley, 
from  whom  I  had  received  my  commission,  did  intend.  He  did  indeed 
solemnly  invest  me,  as  far  as  he  had  a  right  so  to  do,  with  Episcopal 
authority,  but  did  not  intend,  I  think,  that  our  entire  separation  should 


I7S4]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  247 

take  place.  He  being  pressed  by  our  friends  on  this  side  the  water  for 
ministers  to  administer  the  sacraments  to  them  (there  being  very  few- 
clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  then  in  the  States),  he  went  farther, 
1  am  sure,  than  lie  would  have  gone  if  lie  had  foreseen  some  events  which 
followed.  And  this  I  am  certain  of — that  he  is  now  sorry  for  the 
separation. 

But  what  can  be  done  for  a  re-union,  which  I  wish  for;  and  to  accom- 
plish which  Mr.  Wesley,  I  have  no  doubt,  would  usejiis  influence  to  the 
utmost?  The  affection  of  a  very  considerable  number  of  the  preachers 
and  most  of  the  people  is  very  strong  towards  him,  notwithstanding  the 
excessive  ill  usage  he  received  from  a  few.  My  interest  also  is  not 
small;  and  both  his  and  mine  would  readily  and  to  the  utmost  be  used 
to  accomplish  that  (to  us)  very  desirable  object;  if  a  readiness  were 
shown  by  the  bishops  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  to  re-unite. 

But  there  are  many  hindrances  in  the  way.     Can  they  be 

removed? 

1.  Our  ordained  ministers  will  not — ought  not  to — give  up  their  right 
of  administering  the  sacraments.  I  do  not  think  that  the  generality  of 
them,  perhaps  none  of  them,  would  refuse  to  submit  to  a  re-ordination 
if  other  hindrances  were  removed  out  of  the  way.  I  must  here  observe 
that  between  sixty  and  seventy  out  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  have 
been  ordained  presbyters,  and  about  sixty  deacons  only.  The  presbyters 
are  the  choicest  of  the  whole. 

2.  The  other  preachers  would  hardly  submit  to  a  re-union  if  the  pos- 
sibility of  their  rising  up  to  ordination  depended  on  the  present  bishops 
of  America.  Because  though  they  are  all,  I  may  say,  zealous,  pious  and 
very  useful  men,  yet  they  are  not  acquainted  with  the  learned  languages. 
Besides,  they  would  argue,  If  the  present  bishops  would  waive  the 
article  of  the  learned  languages,  yet  their  successors  might  not. 

My  desire  of  a  re-union  is  so  sincere  and  earnest  that  these  difficulties 
almost  make  me  tremble,  and  yet  something  must  be  done  before  the 
death  of  Mr.  Wesley,  otherwise  I  shall  despair  of  success;  for  though  my 
influence  among  the  Methodists  in  these  States,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  is 
increasing,  yet  Mr.  Asbury,  whose  influence  is  very  capital,  will  not 
easily  comply — nay,  I  know  he  will  be  exceedingly  averse  to  it. 

In  Europe,  where  some  steps  had  been  taken  tending  to  a  separation, 
all  is  at  an  end.  Mr.  Wesley  is  a  determined  enemy  of  it,  and  I  have 
lately  borne  an  open  and  successful  testimony  against  it. 

Shall  I  be  favored  with  a  private  interview  with  you  in  Philadelphia? 
I  shall  be  there,  God  willing,  on  Tuesday,  the  17th  of  May.   .   .   . 

In  the  meantime  permit  me  with  great  respect  to  subscribe  myself, 

Right  Reverend  Sir, 

Your  very  humble  servant  in  Christ, 

Thomas  Coke. 
Right  Rev.  Father  in  God,  Bishop  White. 


248  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  THE  [1785 

On  the  28th  of  April,  1785,  the  second  commencement  of  Wash- 
ington College  was  held.     George  Washington  was  present  at  it. 
The  degree  of  A.  B.  was  conferred  upon  the  following  gentlemen: 
Lawson  Alexander,  Daniel  McCurtin, 

William  Hemsley,  Samuel  Keene,  Jr., 

Eben.  Perkins,  Robt.  Goldsborough, 

Thomas  Worrel. 
The  second  degree,  that  of  A.  M.,  was  conferred  upon 
Charles  Smith,  John  Scott, 

William  Bordley,  William  Banoll, 

Rev.  John  Bowie. 
The  degree  of  D.  D.  was  conferred  upon 

Rev.  John  Gordon,  Rev.  William  Thomson, 

Rev.  Samuel  Keene,         Rev.  John  Carroll,* 
Rev.  Thos.  J.  Claggett,   Rev.  John  Andrews, 
Rev.  William  West,         Rev.  Chas.  Henry  Wharton, 
Rev.  Patrick  Allison. 
The  salutatory  of  this  year  was  published  with  this  title: 

ORATIO   SALUTATORIA 

Suffr.  Ampliss.  Facult  Philos. 

PR/ESIDE  Viro  Celeber, 

DOMINO    GULIEMO    SMITH. 

Habita 

In  Alma  Acad.,  Wash., 

Die  decimo  Quarto  Mail 

Anno  Dom.  M.DCC.LXXXIII. 


WILMINGTON  I : 

Impressa  a  Jacobo  Adams. 

M.DCC.LXXXV. 

While  giving  honors  of  the  College,  Dr.  Smith  was  active  in 
laying  a  strong  basis  for  his  distinctions  in  a  college  well  endowed. 
We  give  a  letter  not  dated — as  it  comes  to  us — but  apparently  of 
about  this  epoch. 

*  This  gentleman  was  subsequently  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   £>.  D.  249 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West. 

My  Dear  and  Rev.  Sir:  Mr.  Bowly  will  shew  you  the  Baltimore 
Subscription  Paper,  begun  here  for  the  college.  Yourself,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Sewell  and  Daniel  Bowly,  Thomas  Yates,  Thomas  Russell,  Luther  Mar- 
tin and  David  McMechin,  Esqs.,  are  nominated  to  take  subscriptions 
and  depute  others  in  your  town  and  county,  in  conjunction  with  Dr. 
Allison  and  Mr.  Sterret,  who  are  two  of  the  agents,  and  have  a  right  to 
open  subscriptions  themselves  and  to  add  any  other  persons  they  may 
think  proper  to  those  already  named.  The  form  of  deputation  Dr.  Al- 
lison will  see  at  the  end  of  the  subscription  paper  already  began,  and 
signed  by  Richard  Ridgely,  Daniel  Bowly,  Luther  Martin,  Thomas 
Yates.  Mr.  McMechin  has  subscribed  the  paper  which  was  signed  in 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Delegates.  Near  two  thousand  pounds  are 
subscribed  in  this  town  in  twenty-four  hours.  Baltimore,  no  doubt,  will 
far  exceed  any  other  place,  nay,  perhaps  half  this  shore. 

Considerable  alterations  were  made  in  the  plan  first  settled  by  Mr. 
Carroll,  Dr.  Allison  and  myself,  respecting  the  nice  provisos  amongst 
different  denominations  in  proportion  to  their  subscriptions.  The  paper 
was  printed  off  before  I  came  over.  But  I  was  told  by  Carroll  of  Car- 
rollton,  Mr.  Sprigg,  etc.,  that  the  alterations  were  made  in  concert  with 
Dr.  Allison.  I  am  satisfied,  as  I  hope  all  our  society  will  be,  with  the 
plan  as  it  now  is,  and  as  I  would  have  agreed  it  should  originally  have 
been,  as  I  know  that  a  few  grains  of  mutual  confidence  and  benevolence 
among  different  denominations  of  Christians  will  be  better  than  splitting 
and  torturing  a  design  of  this  kind  with  all  the  provisos  possible. 
Christian  good  will  is  not  to  be  weighed  out  by  drams  and  scruples.  It 
should  be  unconfined  and  universal. 

Please  to  deliver  two  of  the  blank  subscriptions  to  Dr.  Allison,  and  as 
Mr.  Bowly  is  setting  off,  give  the  Doctor  the  perusal  of  this  letter,  as  I 
cannot  find  time  to  write  to  him  myself.  Give  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sewell  a 
subscription  paper.  Tell  him  that  Mr.  Digges  will  write  to  him,  I  be- 
lieve, by  Mr.  Sprigg  to-morrow,  as  I  shall  to  Rev.  Mr.  Andrews.  Car- 
roll of  Carrollton,  Mr.  Digges,  etc.,  have  subscribed  liberally,  as  it  is 
expected  the  rest  of  that  society  will  do.  I  am,  in  haste, 
Your  affectionate  brother, 

William  Smith. 
Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  West. 

On  May  5th,  1785,  Dr.  Smith  mentions  in  his  diary  his  having 
attended  the  funeral  of  his  old  friend,  Christian  Frederick  Post,  at 
Germantown  ;  returning  to  the  city  with  Dr.  White  in  his  chair.* 

*  This  reverend  man,  the  most  adventurous  of  Moravian  missionaries  employed 
among  the  North  American  Indians,  was  born  at  Conitz,  Polish  Prussia,  in  1710.  He 
emigrated  to  this  country  in  June,  1742.     Between  1743  and  1749  he  was  a  mission- 


250  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Ql/85 

We  have  now  a  letter  from  an  old  friend  remaining  in  Penn- 
sylvania : 

Dr.  Muhlenberg  to  Dr.  Smith, 

New  Providence,  Penna.,  May  7th,  1785. 
Viro  Maxime  Reverendo, 

Doctori  Smidio,  Fautori  Suo  Honoratissimo, 
S.  PI.  D.  H.  M.  P.  T.  Candidatus  Mortis. 

To  my  comfort,  your  worthy  son,  Juris  Consultus,  isque  nobilissimus, 
condescended  to  see  me  at  my  journey's  end,  being  no  more  fit  to  con- 
verse with  learned  gentlemen,  because  I  have  almost  lost  the  organa 
sensoria  and  spiritus  vitalis.  I  am  glad  to  understand  that  your  noble 
son  intends  to  reside  here  in  our  neighborhood,  since  it  may,  as  often 
I  shall  see  him,  revive  my  memory  with  gratitude  to  remember  the 
benevolence  of  his  honorable  parents  towards  me  in  times  past. 

In  the  month  of  October  last  I  received  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Wrangel,  dated  at  Sahle  in  Sweden,  in  which  he  demandeth  of  me  as 
follows  : 

If  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  livetli,  present  my  best  compliments  to  him.  I  have  wrote 
to  him  several  times.  I  translated  his  sermon  into  Swedish  on  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  and  presented  it  to  His  Majesty  the  King,  who  read  it  with  much  pleasure  and 
called  it  a  masterpiece,  nicely  handled.* 

ary  to  the  Moravian  Indians  in  New  York  and  Connecticut.  He  first  married  Rachel, 
an  Indian  of  the  Wampanoag  tribe,  and  after  her  death,  Agnes,  a  Delaware.  Having 
become  a  widower  a  second  time,  he  in  1751  returned  to  Europe.  Hence  he  sailed 
for  Labrador  in  1752,  engaging  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  bring  the  Gospel  to  the 
Esquimaux.  Having  returned  to  Bethlehem  in  1754,  he  was  sent  to  Wyoming,  where 
he  preached  to  the  Indians  until  in  November  of  1755.  In  the  summer  of  1758  Post 
undertook  an  embassy  in  behalf  of  Government  to  the  Delawares  and  Shawanese  of 
the  Ohio  country,  which  resulted  in  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Du  Quesne  by  the  French, 
and  the  restoration  of  peace.  In  September  of  1761  he  engaged  in  an  independent 
mission  to  the  Indians  of  that  distant  region,  and  built  him  a  hut  on  the  Tuscarawas, 
near  Bolivar,  in  Stark  county,  Ohio.  John  Heckewelder  joined  him  in  the  spring  of 
1762.  But  the  Pontiac  war  drove  the  missionaries  back  to  the  settlements,  and  the 
project  was  abandoned.  Impelled  by  his  ruling  passion,  Post  now  sought  a  new  field 
of  activity  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Continent,  and  in  January  of  1764  sailed  from 
Charleston,  via  Jamaica,  for  the  Mosquito  coast.  Here  he  preached  to  the  natives  for 
upwards  of  two  years.  He  visited  Bethlehem  in  July  of  1767,  returned  to  Mosquito, 
and  was  in  Bethlehem,  for  the  last  time,  in  1 784.  At  this  date  he  was  residing  with 
his  third  wife,  who  was  an  Episcopalian,  in  Germantown.  Here  he  died  May  1st, 
1785.  On  the  5th  of  May  his  remains  were  interred  in  the  Lower  Graveyard  of  that 
place,  Rev.  William  White,  D.  D.,  of  Christ  Church,  saying  the  funeral  service.  The 
following  inscription  is  upon  his  tombstone: 

"  In  Memory  of  |  the  Rev.  Christian  Frederick  Post,  |  Missionary  for  Propagating  | 
the  Gospel  among  the   Indians  |  in  the  Western  Country,  on  the  Ohio,  |  at  Labrador 
and  the  Mosquito  |  Shore  in  North  America.  |  After  laboring  in  the  Gospel   forty-five 
years  |  with  distinguished  Zeal,  Prudence  and  Fidelity,  |  He   departed  this  Life  |  on 
the  first  day  of  May,  1785,  |  Aged  75  years." 

*  Dr.  Muhlenberg  here  refers  to  the  sermon  of  1775  on  "The  Present  Situation  of 
American  Affairs,"  of  which  we  have  given  a  full  account  on  pages  507-523  of  Vol.  I. 


1785]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  25 1 

So  you  see,  dear  sir,  on  one  side  you  are  beloved  and  praised,  and  on 
the  other  side  hated  and  envied,  in  order  to  keep  and  preserve  your 
head  and  heart  straight  and  upright — Veritas  odium parit.  In  mine  an- 
swer to  Dr.  Wrangel  I  enclosed  all  your  printed  proceedings  in  Mary- 
land, etc.,  which  I  had  collected,  especially  the  Apostolic-spirited 
sermon,  etc.,  and  did  send  them  along  with  due  respects  and  esteem  to 
your  whole  honorable  house.      I  remain, 

Reverend  Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

Muhlenberg. 
To  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  in  the  State  of  Delaware. 

On  the  14th  of  November,  1784,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury  was 
consecrated  Bishop  for  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut,  the 
first  bishop  in  America  since  the  Declaration  of  Independence.* 
On  the  3d  of  August,  1785,  having  returned  to  America,  he  was 
received  by  the  clergy  of  Connecticut  in  convocation,  and  held 
the  first  ordination  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  on  this 
Continent;  the  candidate — who  was  a  son  of  Mr.  Colin  Ferguson, 
Vice-President  of  Dr.  Smith's  new  college — having  been  a  student 
of  Dr.  Smith's  and  prepared  for  Holy  Orders  under  the  direction 
of  that  gentleman  and  by  him  recommended  for  them.  In  a  letter 
to  Dr.  Smith  from  Bishop  Seabury,  soon  after  the  ordination,  the 
Bishop  says : 

I  cannot  omit  to  mention  the  particular  satisfaction  Mr.  Ferguson 
gave,  not  only  to  me  but  to  all  our  clergy. 

I  can  find  no  evidence  of  any  Convention  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  Maryland  being  held  in  the  spring  of  1785,  and  there 
may  have  been  none  ;  but  Dr.  Smith  leaves  a  note  of  being  at 
the  2d  Annual  Convention  of  the  Church  in  Maryland  on  the 
25th  of  October,  1785,  and  of  there  being  present  the  following 
persons :  Dr.  Thomas  Cradock,  Samuel  Johnson,  Thomas  Bond, 
Nicholas  Merryman,  Richard  Wilmott,  and  Francis  Holland, 
Esqs. 

On  the   28th   of  November,  1785,   Dr.  Smith  preached  at  the 

*  As  the  Rev.  George  Morgan  Hills,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  Burling- 
ton, N.  J.,  has  made  an  interesting  argument  to  show,  ihere  was  at  least  one  Bishop  in 
America  before  Bishop  Seabury,  namely,  John  Talbot,  Rector  of  St.  Mary's  Church, 
Burlington,  N.  J.,  a  saintly  man,  consecrated  by  a  non-juring  Bishop,  in  or  about  the 
year  1722.  A  monument,  with  a  fac  simile  of  his  Episcopal  seal,  is  erected  to  his 
memory  in  old  St.  Mary's  Church,  Burlington.  See  "The  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of 
Biography  and  History,"  Vol.  III.,  page  32. 


252  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1786 

funeral  of  his  brother-in-law,  Dr.  Charles  Ridgely,*  who  had  died 
on  the  25th  instant.     He  was  buried  at  Dover,  Delaware. 

On  the  5th  of  December  of  this  same  year  Dr.  Smith's  diary 
says : 

Received  a  letter  from  John  M.  Langguth  at  Bethlehem,  in  regard  to 
the  establishment  of  a  school  for  the  education  of  the  German  youth, 
such  a  plan  having  originated  years  ago  by  Dr.  Muhlenberg  and  my- 
self.    I  sent  him  all  the  plans  as  proposed  at  that  time.f 


*  The  fullowing  account  of  Dr.  Ridgely  is  taken  from  an  old  Bible  belonging  to 
the  family : 

"Charles  Greenberry  Ridgely  was  born  near  Salem,  N.  J.,  January  26th,  1738.  He  was 
baptized  by  Mr.  John  Peirson;  godfathers,  Dr.  Philip  Chetwood  and  William  Frazer, 
Esq.  At  his  becoming  of  age  he  omitted  the  Greenberry,  and  wrote  his  name  Charles 
Ridgely.  He  was  an  eminent  physician.  He  acquired  his  classical  and  medical  edu- 
cation at  Philadelphia,  practised  his  profession  in  Dover,  Delaware,  with  great  success 
and  reputation,  and  deservedly  obtained  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  his  countrymen. 
He  was  many  years  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  before  the  Revolution,  and  during  the 
whole  period  of  the  contest,  and  a  short  time  after  its  termination  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Convention  of  the  State  of  Delaware  which  framed  the  Constitution  of  1776. 
He  departed  this  life  Friday,  November  25th,  1785,  aged  47  years.  He  was  buried 
on  the  28th  of  the  same  month,  in  the  Church  burying-ground  at  Dover.  His  funeral 
sermon  was  preached  by  his  brolher-in-law,  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith." 

-j-  This  interesting  man  was  the  son  of  a  Lutheran  clergyman  settled  at  Walschleben, 
and  born  there  in  October  of  1 7 18.  While  at  Jena  he  acted  as  tutor  to  young  Zinzen- 
dorf.  In  1739  he  united  h'mself  to  the  Brethren  at  Herrnhaag.  In  1745  he  was 
adopted  by  Frederic,  Baron  of  Watteville,  a  friend  of  Zinzendorf,  into  his  family,  and 
soon  after  received  Imperial  letters  patent  of  nobility.  Among  the  Brethren  he  was 
known  as  "  Brother  Johannes."  In  1746  he  married  Benigna  von  Zinzendorf.  Prior 
to  his  visitation  of  the  Brethren's  settlements  and  missions  in  North  America,  he  was, 
in  June  of  1747,  ordained  a  Bishop.  He  arrived  at  Bethlehem  in  September  of  1748; 
thence  he  visited  the  Indian  missions  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York  and  Connecticut. 
In  April  of  1749  he  sailed  for  St.  Thomas.  Soon  after  his  return  to  the  Provinces,  in 
July  of  that  year,  he  repaired  to  Philadelphia  to  hold  an  interview  with  heads  and 
deputies  of  the  Six  Nations,  on  which  occasion  he  .renewed  a  covenant  of  amity, 
which  his  father-in-law  had  ratified  with  that  confederation,  in  August  of  1742.  He 
sailed  for  Europe  in  October,  1749.  During  this  visitation,  Bishop  de  Watteville  pre- 
sided at  three  Synods  of  the  Church,  baptized  a  number  of  Indians,  laid  the  corner- 
stone of  a  church  at  Gnadenhiitten  on  the  Mahoning  (Lehighton,  Carbon  county,  Pa.), 
and  reorganized  a  number  of  Moravian  congregations. 

After  Zinzendorf's  decease,  in  May  of  1760,  his  son-in-law  for  a  time  directed  the 
affairs  of  the  Church.  In  1764  de  Watteville  was  elected  to  the  Directory,  and  in  1769 
to  the  Unity's  Elder's  Conference.  While  a  member  of  this  body  he  visited  North 
America  a  second  time,  inspecting  the  Brethren's  settlements  and  churches,  both  North 
and  South,  in  the  interval  between  June  of  1784  and  June  of  1787.  By  authority  of 
the  above-mentioned  board,  he  sanctioned  the  transforming  of  Nazareth  Hall  into  a 
Boarding  School  for  boys  and  the  erection  of  a  Boarding  School  for  girls  at  Bethlehem 
in  October  of  1785. 

Bishop  de  Watteville  died  at  Gnadenfrey,  Prussia,  in  October,  1788. 


I786]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  253. 

On  February  ilth  General  John  Cadwalader  died  at  his  seat  in 
Kent  county,  Maryland,  in  the  44th  year  of  his  age.  He  was 
sincerely  valued  by  Dr.  Smith,  to  whose  splendid  abilities  he  in 
turn  looked  up  with  admiration.  Dr.  Smith  followed  his  remains 
to  the  old  Parish  Church  at  Shrewsbury,  at  which  place  he  was 
buried;  and  here  the  Doctor  preached  a  funeral  discourse  upon 
him.  It  is  a  matter  which  I  much  regret  that  the  manuscript 
has  not  come  down  to  my  hands.  The  following  inscription 
is  upon  General  Cadwalader's  tomb : 

In  Memory  of 
GENERAL  JOHN  CADWALADER, 

Who  departed  this  life  the  nth  of  February,  1786,  aged  44 
Years,  1  month  and  1  day. 

The  following  character  was  given  him  by  Thomas  Paine,  who,  during 
his  life-time,  had  been  his  violent  political  enemy: 

"  His  early  affectionate  patriotism  will  endear 
His  memory  to  all  the  true  friends  of  the  American 
Revolution.     It  may  with  the  strictest  justice  be 
Said  of  him  that  he  possessed  a  heart  incapable 
Of  deceiving.      His  manners  were  formed  on  the 
•  Nicest  sense  of  honor,  and  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
Life  was  governed  by  this  principle — the  companions 
Of  his  youth  were  the  companions  of  his  manhood. 
He  never  lost  a  friend  by  insincerity  nor  made 
One  by  deception.      His  domestic  virtues  were  truly 
Exemplary,  and  while  they  serve  to  endear  the 
Remembrance,  they  embitter  the  loss  of  him  to  all 
His  numerous  friends  and  connections." 

This  stone  is  placed  by  his  affectionate  children  to  mark 
The  spot  where  his  remains  are  deposited. 

We  are  rendering  our  volume  perhaps  too  much  of  a  family 
diary  by  the  insertion  of  facts  and  letters  relating  chiefly  to 
domestic  events.  But  such  letters  bring  us  into  the  best  portion 
of  a  great  man's  life,  and  the  letter  which  follows,  from  the  wife 
of  Dr.  Smith  to  their  son,  may,  I  trust,  be  inserted  without  more 
apology,  referring  as  it  does  to  the  two  distinguished  persons 
whose  deaths  I  have  so  recently  chronicled. 


254  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  ll7^7 

Mrs.  Smith  to  her  son  Charles. 

Chest  ertown,  Ma,  March  12,  1786. 

My  Dear  Son  : I  have  had  a  melancholy  time  since  last  I 

saw  you.  Our  dear  Mrs.  Cadwalader,  since  July  last,  has  buried  two 
sons;  but  had  that  been  all,  a  surviving  son  and  daughter,  as  lovely 
children  as  ever  were  born,  would  have  enabled  her  to  bear  the  loss  with 
patient  resignation.  A  much  severer  blow  was  to  be  submitted  to — her 
worthy  husband  departed  this  life  the  10th  of  last  month.  At  all  these 
scenes  I  was  a  sorrowing  witness. 

Your  poor  Aunt  Ridgely  too  has  lost  a  most  tender  and  indulgent 
husba'd.  But  in  his  children  she  is  blessed.  Nicholas  practices  the 
law  at  Dover  and  pays  her  every  attention;  and  Charles  lives  with  her. 

Your  dear  Aunt  Bond  is  really  a  woman  of  sorrow.  This  last  stroke 
must  be  almost  too  much  for  her  to  bear.  My  heart  bleeds  for  her. 
Do,  my  dear  son,  if  anything  is  in  your  power,  relating  to  her  affairs, 
do  for  her  as  I  am  sure  you  would  do  for  me;  and  depend  upon  it  a 
blessing  will  attend  your  righteous  endeavor.  Cruel  fate  has  separated 
her  from  the  only  son.*  She  was  ever  a  mother  to  him  ;  and  such  a 
son,  oh  my  dear  child,  when  I  think  of  him  I  offer  up  my  ardent  prayers 
to  the  throne  of  mercy,  and  as  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  ask  that  you 
may  prove,  what  I  ever  thought  him. 

Say  for  me  to  your  dear  wife,  to  her  sweet  little  ones,  and  to  your  ever 
worthy  uncle  (Judge  Thomas  Smith)  that  while  I  have  life  they  will  be 
remembered  with  affection  by  their  ever  most  tender  and  anxious  friend, 

Your  mother, 

Rebecca  Smith. 
To  Charles  Smith, 

Student  at  Law,  Carlisle. 

On  the  27th  of  May,  1787,  another  Convention  of  the  Church 
in  Maryland  was  held  at  Chestertown,  Dr.  Smith  being  chosen  to 
preside.  Seven  of  the  clergy  and  five  laymen  assisted.  Beyond 
the  appointment  of  Dr.  Smith  as  a  clerical  deputy  to  attend  the  next 
General  Convention — the  one  held  at  Philadelphia  in  1789 — I 
know  of  nothing  worthy  of  special  record.  Two  months  after- 
wards his  diary  contains  this  record  : 

July  — .  My  dear  wife's  kinsman,  Richard  Channing  Moore,  was  this 
day  ordained  by  Bishop  Provoost,  of  New  York. 

This  gentleman  was  the  person  afterwards  well  known  as  Bishop 
Moore,  of  Virginia. 

I  find  no  very  various  evidences  of  Dr.  Smith's  activity  during 

*  Phineas  Bond,  afterwards  British  Consul  at  Philadelphia. 


1788]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  255 

the  year  1788.  The  violent  party  by  which  the  charter  of  the  old 
College  of  Philadelphia  had  been  taken  away,  had  itself  now,  after 
a  life  not  long,  come  to  a  sudden  and  complete  and  rather  igno- 
minious end;  and  Dr.  Smith  devoted  no  small  portion  of  his  time 
and  labor  to  having  a  repeal  of  the  unjust  enactments  by  which 
the  chartered  rights  of  the  institution  which  he  had  founded  and 
built,  were  so  unjustly  taken  away  by  it  in  1789;  "a  repeal,"  says 
Bishop  White,  in  speaking  of  Dr.  Smith,  "  which  but  for  his  labors 
and  perseverance  would  probably  never  have  been  effected,  not- 
withstanding the  justice  of  the  case."  *  Much  of  Dr.  Smith's  time 
therefore  was  spent  in  Philadelphia ;  and  he  published  in  that  city 
in  1788,  by  the  respectable  firm  of  Robert  Aitken  &  Son,  "  An 
Address  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Case 
of  the  Violated  Charter  of  the  College,  etc.,  of  Philadelphia;"  a 
powerful  document,  which  I  regret  that  my  space  prevents  my  here 
inserting. 

But  his  Masonic  friends  at  home  were  not  forgotten.  On  the 
29th  of  August,  it  being  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  he 
preached  in  the  hall  of  Washington  College,  at  the  desire  cf  the 
Grand  Communication  of  the  Maryland  lodges. 

The  following  letter  has  reference  to  the  rights  of  St.  John's 
College  and  of  the  Maryland  churches.  I  am  not  able  to  explain 
it  particularly  from  other  sources,  and  therefore  leave  it  to  explain 
itself: 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  West 

Annapolis,  December  11,  1788. 
Dear  Sir:  I  should  have  been  much  pleased  if  you  had  pursued 
your  journey  to  Annapolis,  as  Mr.  Hanson  and  the  other  gentlemen 
visitors  of  St.  John's  College  are  exceedingly  desirous  of  a  meeting,  or 
a  conference  at  least  of  as  many  of  their  Board  as  possible,  but  neither 
Clagget,  Baines  or  Thomas  have  yet  appeared,  and  Mr.  Chase  and  my- 
self are  left  to  act  by  ourselves  in  behalf  of  our  Church  also,  but  we 
shall  be  sufficient,  as  we  have  drawn  up  a  clause,  preserving  all  our 
former  rights,  and  under  the  vestry  laws,  and  entitling  our  vestries,  on 
the  footing  of  equal  liberty,  to  the  like  extension  of  their  property, 
viz.,  4000  bushels  of  wheat  per  annum,  and  to  take  by  deed,  gift, 
devise,  etc.,  as  other  vestries,  with  a  new  clause  also,  viz.  :  that  if  by 
neglect   or   failure  of  an   election   on   any  Easter  Monday,  a  vestry  has 

*  "Wilson's  Life  of  While,"  page  19. 


256  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1/89 

heretofore,  or  shall  hereafter  expire,  or  be  in  danger  thereof,  the  min- 
ister may  call  a  meeting  on  the  first  Monday  of  any  month  follow 
[sic],  ar,  1  hold  a  new  election  to  revive  and  continue  the  vestry  and  the 
minister  to  be  a  member  as  heretofore.  Dr.  Carroll  and  Dr.  Allison 
went  with  me  into  the  Senate  and  delivered  the  clause,  declaring  that 
on  the  insertion  thereof,  we  were  all  agreed  to  the  bill. 

I  have  done  the  best  with  Mr.  Chase's  usual  good  offices  and  the  bill 
will  be  taken  care  of  in  its  passage  through  the  House  of  Delegates  by 
Chase,  W.  Tilghman,  and  other  members  of  our  Church,  but  I  cannot 
return  the  minutes  of  our  Convention  by  the  bearer,  as  they  are  neces- 
sary to  Mr.  Chase  and  myself  to  show  our  authority.  I  shall  take  care 
of  them  till  next  Convention,  and  am  in  haste, 

Yours,  William  Smith. 

P.  S. — To-morrow  I  shall  hope  to  return  to  Chester  and  would  wish 
to  hear  from  you  as  often  as  convenient. 

The  bill  thus  spoken  of  passed  the  Senate  and  was  reported  to 
the  House,  but  there  it  failed  to  be  acted  upon  and  for  the  time  the 
matter  dropped. 


CHAPTER    L. 

The  Proposed  Book  not  so  well  received  as  might  have  been  reasonably 
expected — The  cause  of  this  thus  explained — Proposed  by  a  Conven- 
tion before  the  Church  was  properly  Organized  by  the  presence  of 
the  Episcopal  Order — The  New  England  Clergy  alarmed  by  a  wrong 
impression  of  the  Turbose  of  Dr.  White's  "Case  of  the  Episcopal 
Churches  in  the  United  States  Considered" — The  Alterations  not 
Agreeable  to  all — Bishop  Seabury's  statement  of  some  of  the  grounds 
of  dislike— State  Pride  and  Jealousy  as  much  a  cause  for  the  Non- 
reception  as  any  better  reasons — The  work  too  hastily  done — Let- 
ter to  Dr.  West. 

Although,  as  we  have  said,  the  "Proposed  Book"  was  univer- 
sally admitted  to  contain  no  doctrines  not  those  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  to  promulge  in  form  more  or  less  explicit  all  that 
were  clearly  expressed  in  the  old  book  as  undeniably  hers,  and  in 
several  respects  to  make  valuable  improvements  upon  this  old 
book,  the  volume  did  not  give  general  satisfaction. 

The  New  England  Churches — under  the  guidance  of  the  able, 
upright  and  fearless  Seabury — had  some  notions  of  churchmanship 
that  were  perhaps  rather  too  tightly  drawn  to  be  universally  ac- 
knowledged as  the  only  view  allowed  by  the  Church  of  England. 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  257 

Those  churches  were  disinclined  to  have  the  laity  have  any  vote  in 
the  councils  of  the  Church;  and  as  for  any  conventions  in  which 
the  Episcopal  order  was  not  represented,  undertaking  to  remodel 
and  to  settle  anew  its  liturgy — in  many  cases  the  exponents  of  its 
doctrines — even  though  at  the  time  the  Episcopal  order  did  not 
exist  among  us,  and  it  was  uncertain  how  soon  exactly  we  would 
get  it — the  idea  struck  them  as  only  short  of  impious.  They  con- 
sidered that  in  attempting  to  organize  the  Church  before  a  head 
had  been  obtained,  the  Convention  of  1784  had  begun  and  those 
of  1785  and  1786  had  been  working  at  the  wrong  end;  that  with- 
out a  Bishop  the  churches  resembled  the  scattered  limbs  of  a 
body  without  any  common  centre  of  union  or  principle  to  animate 
the  whole.  An  Episcopate  according  to  their  idea  was  necessary 
to  direct  their  motions  and  by  a  delegated  authority  to  claim 
their  assent.  They  held  to  the  constant  application  and  under 
every  circumstance,  of  the  maxim — true  no  doubt  in  the  abstract 
and  the  general — Sine  Episcopo,  nulla  est  Ecclesia. 

However  unexceptional  in  itself,  then,  the  Proposed  Book  might 
have  been  regarded  by  them,  they  resiled  from  it  as  coming  from 
a  wrong  source;  just  as  they  would  from  the  Prayer  Book  made 
by  a  heretic  or  an  infidel.  An  eccentric  English  nobleman,  assisted 
by  Dr.  Franklin,  had  in  fact  made  a  Prayer  Book — which  in 
some  respects  the  Proposed  Book  followed,  and  which  some 
persons  professed  to  like  exceedingly.  But  would  the  Church 
accept  a  liturgy  from  such  a  source?  Assuredly  not.  There 
were  laymen  in  the  Conventions  of  1784,  1785  and  1786,  whose 
faith  in  particular  parts  of  the  Church's  teaching  was  as  question- 
able as  was  Dr.  Franklin's  in  those  points  and  in  many  more  of  it. 
The  Church  was  then  to  be  governed  only  as  it  was  governed 
in  ancient  times;  by  its  clergy,  the  Episcopi  being  in  the  highest 
seats,  and  where  they  could  overlook  the  whole.  And  this  view 
— which  had  great  force  in  it — was  not  the  view  of  the  New  Eng- 
land clergy  alone.  It  had  advocates,  in  the  Middle  States,  and 
nowhere  a  more  sincere  and  powerful  advocate  than  in  New 
Jersey,  where  Thomas  Bradbury  Chandler,  D.  D.,  who,  long  before 
the  Revolution,  had  been  endeavoring  to  have  an  Episcopate  in 
America,  and  had  been  battling  in  opposition  to  the  great  Pres- 
byterian, Dr.  Chauncy,  was  acting  only  in  consistency  with  his 
long  maintained  view.  No  doubt,  too,  the  pamphlet  of  Dr. 
17 


258  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [[1789 

White,  the  President  of  the  Convention  of  1785,  which  had 
framed  the  Proposed  Book,  did  greatly  alarm  even  those  who 
could  be  called  no  more  than  conservative  churchmen.*  Our 
means  of  intercourse  in  that  day  were  few,  and  information 
traveled  slowly.  As  the  true  history  of  the  publication  became 
known,  the  fears,  so  far  as  they  arose  from  any  views  of  Bishop 
White — than  whom  the  land  never  had  any  truer  churchman,  if 
we  may  take  Hooker  as  an  exponent  of  what  a  churchman  is — 
departed. 

The  Proposed  Book  was,  however,  open  to  some  objections  in 
their  nature  intrinsical.  While  no  heterodoxy  was  alleged  against 
the  book  it  is  perhaps  the  fact  that  some  true  doctrines  were  left 
rather  unguarded,  and  that  some  of  the  offices  were  so  far  lowered 
as  that,  in  a  measure,  they  would  lose  their  influence.  The  omis- 
sions of  particular  psalms  or  parts  of  psalms  as  undesirable  to  be 
read  was  regarded  by  some  as  treating  the  Scriptures  irreverently; 
and  the  uniting  of  different  psalms  into  one  portion  for  each  daily 


*  "  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States  Considered."  Dr. 
Stevens  Perry — to  whose  labors  in  advance  of  me,  in  the  department  of  our  Church 
history,  I  have  already,  as  I  must  here  again,  express  my  acknowledgments  for  much 
that  constitutes  the  value  of  my  book,  and  to  whose  gracious  and  real  aid  many  authors 
besides  myself,  as  I  know,  acknowledge  their  obligations — has  reprinted  this  pam- 
phlet in  the  third  volume  of  his  truly  useful  "  Half  Century  of  the  Legislation  of  the 
American  Church."  Having  made  in  that  work  many  explanations  of  things  in  the 
volume  by  reprinting  large  passages  from  Bishop  White's  writings,  he  has  made,  in  my 
opinion,  an  omission  (unavoidable,  perhaps,  from  the  size  and  cost  of  his  book)  and 
done  injustice  (unintentional,  I  am  sure,  if  it  does  do  injustice)  to  Bishop  White,  in  not 
reprinting  after  or  before  "  The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches,"  etc.,  the  Bishop's 
history  of  the  circumstances  under  which  that  pamphlet  was  issued,  a  history  to  which 
we  have  already  alluded  (see  sitpra,  pages  185,  186)  as  twice — we  might  have  said 
thrice — made  by  the  Bishop,  with  an  emphasis — brought  about  by  the  misrepresenta- 
tions of  low  churchmen  in  regard  to  his  opinions — which  disarms  it  of  harm  as  any 
expression  of  opinion  on  Church  polity;  a  harm  which  Dr.  Perry's  publication  in  an 
unexplained  form  perhaps  tends  and  will  assist  to  perpetuate.  I  assume,  of  course, 
that  so  learned  a  writer  upon  the  history  of  the  American  Church  and  who  seems  to 
have  been  in  close  intimacy  with  the  present  diocesan  of  Pennsylvania,  was  not  igno- 
rant of  the  Appendix  to  Bishop  White's  charge  of  1S07  to  the  clergy  of  Pennsylvania; 
though  in  this  I  may  be  mistaken.  Bishop  WThite — who  was  the  most  modest  of  men, 
and  as  little  as  any  man  who  ever  lived,  thought  of  his  own  fame  either  during  life  or 
posthumously — took  no  pains  to  preserve  for  consultation,  by  either  his  contemporaries 
or  those  who  should  come  after  him,  his  own  sermons  and  fugitive  pieces.  The  Phila- 
delphia Library  Company — where  most  Philadelphians  deposit  their  own  writings,  at 
least — has  scarce  any  of  these  pieces.  The  charge  of  1807  is  what  Bibliophiles  call 
"  rare,"  and  possibly  may  be  absent  from  even  the  large  and,  as  I  suppose,  generally 
complete  collections  of  Dr.  Perry.     See  Appendix  No.  IV. 


1 789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  259 

service,  was  objected  to  as  calculated  to  break  their  connection, 
especially  of  such  as  were  prophetical.  Some  thought  the  verbal 
alterations  too  numerous ;  and  there  were  not  a  few,  to  whom 
nearly  every  word  in  the  book  was  endeared  by  so  many  affecting 
associations  that  they  desired  no  change  whatever,  but  what  the 
Revolution  made  imperative,  and  what  in  regard  to  a  very  few 
passages  a  change  in  modes  of  speaking  seemed  to  make  decorous. 
This  part  of  the  matter  is  set  forth  with  so  much  force  in  a  let- 
ter of  Bishop  Seabury  to  Bishop  White,  written  in  June,  1789, 
that  I  cannot  forbear  to  quote  it  at  large:* 

Was  it  not  that  it  would  run  this  letter  to  an  unreasonable  length,  I 
would  take  the  liberty  to  mention  at  large  the  objections  that  have  been 
here  made  to  the  Prayer  Book  published  at  Philadelphia.  I  will  con- 
fine myself  to  a  few,  and  even  these  I  should  not  mention  but  from  a 
hope  they  will  be  obviated  by  your  Convention. 

The  mutilating  the  psalms  is  supposed  to  be  an  unwarrantable  liberty, 
and  such  as  was  never  before  taken  with  Holy  Scriptures  by  any  Church. 
It  destroys  that  beautiful  chain  of  prophecy  that  runs  through  them,  and 
turns  their  application  from  Messiah  and  the  Church  to  the  temporal 
state  and  concerns  of  individuals. 

By  discarding  the  word  Absolution,  and  making  no  mention  of  Re- 
generation in  Baptism,  you  appear  to  give  up  those  points,  and  to  open 
the  door  to  error  and  delusion. 

The  excluding  of  the  Nicene  and  Athanasian  Creed  has  alarmed  the 
steady  friends  of  our  Church,  lest  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  divinitv 
should  go  out  with  them.  If  the  doctrine  of  those  creeds  be  offensive, 
we  are  sorry  for  it,  and  shall  hold  ourselves  so  much  the  more  bound  to 
retain  them.  If  what  are  called  the  damnatory  clauses  in  the  latter  be 
the  objection,  cannot  these  clauses  be  supported  by  Scripture?  Whether 
they  can  or  cannot,  why  not  discard  those  clauses,  and  retain  the  doc- 
trinal part  of  the  creed? 

The  leaving  out  the  descent  into  Hell  from  the  Apostles'  Creed  seems 
to  be  of  dangerous  consequence.  Have  we  a  right  to  alter  the  analogy 
of  faith  handed  down  to  us  by  the  Holy  Catholic  Church?  And  if  we 
do  alter  it,  how  will  it  appear  that  we  are  the  same  Church  which  sub- 
sisted in  primitive  times?  The  article  of  the  descent,  I  suppose,  was  put 
into  the  Creed  to  ascertain  Christ's  perfect  humanity,  that  he  has  a 
human  soul,  in  opposition  to  those  heretics  who  denied  it,  and  affirmed 
that  his  body  was  actuated  by  the  divinity.  For  if  when  he  died,  and 
his  body  was  laid  in  the  grave  his  soul  went  to  the  receptacle  of  de- 
parted spirits,  then  he  had  a  human  soul  as  well  as  body,  and  was  very 
and  perfect  man. 

*  See  Perry's  "  Half  Century  of  Legislation,"  Vol.  III.,  page  386. 


260  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [1/89 

The  Apostles'  Creed  seems  to  have  been  the  Creed  of  the  Western 
Church',  the  Nicene  of  the  Eastern;  and  the  Athanasian,  to  be  de- 
signed to  ascertain  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  against  all  op- 
posers.  And  it  always  appeared  to  me,  that  the  design  of  the  Church 
of  England,  in  retaining  the  three  Creeds,  was  to  show  that  she  did 
retain  the  analogy  of  the  Catholic  faith,  in  common  with  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Church,  and  in  opposition  to  those  who  denied  the  Trinity 
of  persons  in  the  Unity  of  the  Divine  Essence.  Why  any  departure 
should  be  made  from  this  good  and  pious  example  I  am  yet  to  seek. 

There  seems  in  your  book  a  dissonance  between  the  offices  of  Bap- 
tism and  Confirmation.  In  the  latter  there  is  a  renewal  of  a  vow, 
which  in  the  former  does  not  appear  to  have  been  explicitly  made. 
Something  of  the  same  discordance  appears  in  the  Catechism. 

Our  regard  for  primitive  practice  makes  us  exceedingly  grieved  that 
you  have  not  absolutely  retained  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  Baptism. 
When  I  consider  the  practice  of  the  ancient  Church,  before  Popery  had 
a  being,  I  cannot  think  the  Church  of  England  justifiable  in  giving  up 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  where  it  was  retained  by  the  first  Prayer  Book  of 
Edward  the  VI.  Her  motive  may  have  been  good  ;  but  good  motives 
will  not  justify  wrong  actions.  The  concessions  she  has  made  in  giving 
up  several  primitive,  and  I  suppose  apostolical  usages,  to  gratify  the 
humors  of  fault-finding  men,  shows  the  inefficacy  of  such  conduct. 
She  has  learned  wisdom  from  her  experiences.  Why  should  not  we  also 
take  a  lesson  in  her  school  ?  If  the  humor  be  pursued  of  giving  up 
points  on  every  demand,  in  fifty  years  we  shall  scarce  have  the  name  of 
Christianity  left.  For  God's  sake,  my  dear  sir,  let  us  remember  that  it 
is  the  particular  business  of  the  Bishops  of  Christ's  Church  to  preserve 
it  pure  and  undefiled,  in  faith  and  practice,  according  to  the  model  left 
by  apostolic  practice.  And  may  God  give  you  grace  and  courage  to 
act  accordingly ! 

In  your  burial  office,  the  hope  of  a  future  resurrection  to  eternal  life 
is  too  faintly  expressed,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  an  intermediate 
state,  between  death  and  the  resurrection,  seems  to  be  entirely  thrown 
out  ;  though,  that  this  was  a  Catholic,  primitive  and  apostolical  doc- 
trine, will  be  denied  by  none  who  attend  to  this  point. 

The  Articles  seem  to  be  altered  to  little  purpose.  The  doctrines  are 
neither  more  clearly  expres^d  nor  better  guarded;  nor  are  the  objec- 
tions to  the  old  articles  obviated.  And,  indeed,  this  seems  to  have 
been  the  case  with  several  other  alterations ;  they  appear  to  have  been 
made  for  alteration's  sake,  and  at  least  have  not  mended  the  matter 
the)'  aimed  at. 

That  the  most  exceptionable  part  of  the  English  Jbook  is  the  Commun- 
ion office  may  be  proved  by  a  number  of  very  respectable  names  among 
her  clergy.  The  grand  fault  in  that  office  is  the  deficiency  of  a  more 
formal   oblation  of  the  elements,   and  of  the   invocation   of  the  Holy 


I/S9]  REV.    WILLIAM   SMITH,   D.  D.  26l 

Ghost  to  sanctify  and  bless  them.  The  Consecration  is  made  to  consist 
merely  in  the  priest's  laying  his  hands  on  the  elements  and  pronouncing, 
'•This  is  my  body  "  etc.,  which  words  are  not  consecration  at  all,  nor 
were  they  addressed  by  Christ  to  the  Father,  but  were  declarative  to 
the  Apostles.  This  is  so  exactly  symbolizing  with  the  Church  of  Rome 
in  an  error;  an  error,  too,  on  which  the  absurdity  of  transubstantiation 
is  built,  that  nothing  but  having  fallen  into  the  same  error  themselves, 
could  have  prevented  the  enemies  of  the  Church  from  casting  it  in  her 
teeth.  The  efficacy  of  Baptism,  of  Confirmation,  of  Orders,  is  ascribed 
to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  His  energy  is  implored  for  that  purpose;  and 
why  He  should  not  be  invoked  in  the  consecration  of  the  Eucharist, 
especially  as  all  the  old  liturgies  are  full  to  the  point,  I  cannot  conceive. 
It  is  much  easier  to  account  for  the  alterations  of  the  first  liturgy  of 
Edward  the  VI.,  than  to  justify  them;  and  as  I  have  been  told  there  is 
a  vote  on  the  minutes  of  your  Convention*,  anno.  1786,  I  believe,  for 
the  revision  of  this  matter,  I  hope  it  will  be  taken  up,  and  that  God 
will  raise  up  some  able  and  worthy  advocate  for  this  primitive  practice, 
and  make  you  and  the  Convention  the  instruments  of  restoring  it  to 
His  Church  in  America.  It  would  do  you  more  honor  in  the  world, 
and  contribute  more  to  the  union  of  the  Churches  than  any  other  alter- 
ations you  can  make,  and  would  restore  the  Holy  Eucharist  to  its  an- 
cient dignity  and  efficacy. 

In  addition,  one  of  the  "fundamental  principles  "  set  forth  in  the 
Convention  of  1784,  inviting  a  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  was: 

IV.  That  the  said  Church  shall  maintain  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel 
as  now  held  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  shall  adhere  to  the  Liturgy 
of  the  said  Church  as  far  as  shall  be  consistent  until  the  American  Revolu- 
tion and  the  Constitutions  of  the  respective  States. 

It  could  therefore  fairly  be  argued  that  the  alterations  suggested 
in  the  Proposed  Book  were  an  implied  violation  of  the  call  by 
which  the  Convention  of  1785  which  suggested  them  was  assembled ; 
and  as  made  ultra  vires  of  the  Body  making  them,  were  absolutely 
of  no  authority. 

But  with  all  this,  the  opposition  with  some  was  more  perhaps  of 
a  personal  kind  than  from  considerations  better  entitled  to  weight. 
In  the  Church  as  in  the  Congress  and  country  the  fault  and  cor- 
ruption of  the  nature  of  every  State  engendered  of  its  supposed 
original  independence — an  independence  which  never  existed  in 
fact — by  the  extremes  of  the  doctrine  of  "  State  Rights  " — a  doc- 
trine wholesome  within  proper  limits — was  of  its  nature  inclined  to 


262  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l7&9 

evil;  so  that  the  infection  remained,  yea,  even  when  the  regenera- 
tion of  a  Union  was  sought  for;  personal  interest  lusting  always 
contrary  to  the  general  good,  and  not  subject  any  more  than  origi- 
nal sin  either  to  the  law  of  common  sense  or  to  the  law  of  God. 

The  State  Conventions  were  jealous  of  the  authority  of  a  General 
Convention.  A  mere  proposition  to  them — a  simple  recommenda- 
tion— they  would  tolerate;  and  would  probably  adopt.  Anything 
that  had  the  semblance  of  going  beyond  alarmed  them,  and  set 
them  at  once  into  a  state  of  militancy.  The  matter  is  set  forth 
with  perfect  intelligibility  by  Bishop  White  in  his  Memoirs.  He 
says : :; 

The  Convention  (of  1785)  seems  to  have  fallen  into  two  capital  errors, 
independently  on  the  merits  of  the  Book. 

The  first  error  was  the  ordering  of  the  printing  of  a  large  edition  of 
the  Book,  which  did  not  well  consist  with  the  principle  of  a  mere  pro- 
posal. Perhaps  much  of  the  opposition  to  it  arose  from  this  very  thing, 
which  seemed  a  stretch  of  power  designed  to  effect  the  introduction  of 
the  book  to  actual  use  in  order  to  prevent  a  discussion  of  its  merits. 

The  other  error  was  the  ordering  of  the  use  of  it  in  Christ  Church, 
Philadelphia,  on  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Smith's  sermon  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  session  of  the  Convention.  This  helped  to  confirm  the  opinion 
of  its  being  introduced  with  a  high  hand. 

The  Bishop  tells  us  further  that  the  Book  was  used  by  the 
Philadelphia  clergy  on  assurances  given  to  them  by  gentlemen 
from  other  places  that  they  would  begin  it  in  their  respective 
churches  immediately  on  their  return;  a  thing  which  the  greater 
number  of  them  never  did;  some  being  prevented  because  some 
influential  members  of  their  congregations  were  dissatisfied  with 
some  one  of  the  alterations ;  "  a  fact,"  says  the  Bishop,  "  which  shows 
very  strongly  how  much  weight  of  character  is  necessary  to  such 
changes  as  maybe  thought  questionable."  The  Bishop,  it  is  plain, 
had  he  been  left  to  his  own  course  would  not  have  had  the  book 
printed  for  any  general  use  at  all,  until  the  alterations  had  been 
received  and  approved  in  the  different  States. 

But  in  the  nature  of  things  how  could  a  work  done  in  a  public 
assembly,  so  hastily  and  with  comparatively  small  consideration, 
fail  to  require  further  consideration?  The  Convention  of  1785  met 
on  Tuesday,  the  27th  of  September,  and  adjourned  on  Friday,  the 


*  Memoirs,  2d  edition,  page  107. 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  l6j 

7th  of  October,  ten  working  days;  and  it  had  other  important 
subjects  to  attend  to  besides  this  work  of  revising  the  Liturgy. 
No  such  review  could  give  satisfaction  to  all,  nor,  perhaps,  on  re- 
flection, entirely  to  any  one.  It  was  not  expected  that  it  would; 
nor  was  more  expected  than  that  which  Dr.  Smith  expressed  when 
he  expressed  in  behalf  of  the  Convention  the  hope  that  it  would 
be  "received  and  examined  by  every  true  member  of  our  Church 
and  every  sincere  Christian  with  a  meek,  candid  and  charitable 
frame  of  mind;  without  prejudice  or  prepossessions;  seriously  con- 
sidering what  Christianity  is  and  what  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  are." 

In  the  nature  of  things,  the  subject  would  come  further  before 
the  Church  in  the  next  Convention — that  of  1789  ;  a  General  Con- 
vention for  all  the  States  where  the  Church  existed,  as  it  proved 
to  be,  and  competent  therefore  to  speak  with  a  wiser  and  more 
impressive  authority. 

Indeed,  it  is  remarkable — considering  how  much  Dr.  Smith  had 
had  to  do  with  the  making  as  I  suppose  of  the  Proposed  Book, 
how  much  time  he  bestowed  upon  fitting  it  for  the  press,  and  how 
desirous  apparently  he  was  of  seeing  it  introduced  into  general 
use,  that  so  soon  as  he  perceived  that  it  was  not  universally  ac- 
ceptable, he  went  right  to  work,  without  the  least  amour  propre 
d'atttcur,  or  the  least  tenacity  to  preconceived  wishes,  to  make  such 
a  work  as  would  be  acceptable  to  all.  He  thus  writes  to  Dr.  West, 
one  of  the  clergy  of  his  own  State,  who  obviously  had  net  been 
well  satisfied  with  the  Book.  It  tends  to  disprove  the  allegation 
which  in  his  lifetime  was  sometimes  made  against  him  that  he 
was  unreasonable  and  dictatorial,  and  impatient  of  any  opposition 
to  his  views  or  wishes.  It  is  quite  true  that  he  did  not  "  suffer 
fools  gladly"  even  though  he  himself  was  wise.  But  where  he 
was  dealing  with  men  of  sense  no  one  was  more  patient  or  more 
open  to  conviction.     The  following  is  the  letter  to  Dr.  West : 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West. 

Chester,  Kent  County,  June  16,  1789. 

Dear  Sir:  I  beg  that  you  may  not  forget  to  give  me  your  whole  and 
unreserved  sentiments  and  advice  respecting  our  Church  affairs,  and 
every  alteration,  amendment  or  reservation  respecting  our  Prayer  Book, 
which  you  judge  will  tend  most  towards  peace  and  uniformity,  and  a 
general  acquiescence — nay,  a  cordial  and  pious  acceptance  and  use  of 
the  book.  Yours,  etc.,  William  Smith. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  WEST. 


264  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1789 


CHAPTER   LI. 

The  Convention  of  1789,  a  great  Ecclesiastical  Council — Dr.  Smith  is 
called  on  unexpectedly  to  Preach  on  its  Opening,  and  soon  afterwards 
on  the  sudden  Death  of  Dr  Griffith,  Bishop-elect  of  Virginia — A 
Memoir  of  Dr.  Griffith — The  Convention  delicately  situated  in  re- 
gard to  Bishop  S:  abury — Bishop  Provoost's  somewhat  eccentric  course 
in  r;:.;ard  to  this  eminent  and  pious  prelate — Dignified  course  of 
Bishop  Seabury — Dr.  Smith,  along  with  Bishop  White,  accommodate 
matters  between  blshop  seabury  and  the  convention — the  validity 
of  Bishop  Seabury's  Episcopal  Orders,  on  motion  of  Dr.  Smith,  fully 
Recognized  by  the  Convention — The  Convention  temporarily  Adjourns 
in  order  to  give  time  for  further  consultation — correspondence  be- 
TWEEN Dr.  Smith  and  Bishop  Seabury — The  latter,  with  Representa- 
tives from  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  comes  into  the  Adjourned 
Convention — A  General  Union  effected  a.  d.  1789,  in  Philadelphia,  in 
the  same  room  in  the  state  house  where  independence  was  declared 
in  i776,  and  the  constitution  of  the  united  states  signed  in  1 787 — 
Happy  Conclusion  of  much  labor  and  of  many  solicitudes. 

The  year  1789  makes  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  American 
nation.  It  was  the  year  in  which  an  United  Church  was  consti- 
tuted out  of  separated  and  somewhat  discordant  ecclesiastical 
bodies;  as  well  as  the  year  in  which  "the  United  States  of 
America"  gave  to  us  from  differing  States  that  unity  of  govern- 
ment which  constitutes  us  one  people.  Nor  was  there  much  less 
difficulty  in  effecting  an  unity  in  the  Church  than  there  was  in 
effecting  an  unity  in  the  nation.  We  shall  speak  of  these  matters 
further  on. 

Since  the  Convention  of  1786,  Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Provoost  had 
been  consecrated  Bishops.  But  Dr.  Provoost  was  indisposed,  and 
did  not  come  to  this  Convention  of  1789.  Bishop  Seabury  had 
not,  as  yet,  in  any  way  united  himself  to  his  Southern  brethren. 
The  Convention  met — all  orders  of  the  clergy  and  the  laity — as 
one  body;  Bishop  White  presiding.  At  the  opening  of  the  Con- 
vention, Dr.  Smith  was  called  upon  by  it,  in  a  way  which  put  to 
proof  his  ready  powers  and  his  amiable  disposition;  and  which 
manifested  equally  the  reliance  which  was  had  by  the  members  of 
the  body  upon  both. 


I/89]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  265 

On  the  adjournment  of  the  Convention  of  17S6,  Dr.  Provoost 
had  been  requested  to  preach  before  the  Convention  of  1789.  It 
assembled  July  26th  of  that  year.  But  Bishop  Provoost  was  not 
there.  Dr.  Smith,  upon  one  day's  notice,  was  requested  to  preach 
instead.  He  did  so.  He  had  hardly  delivered  this  sermon  before 
he  was  called  on  for  another.  The  Rev.  David  Griffith,  who  had 
been  elected  Bishop  of  Virginia  and  was  now  attending  the  Con- 
vention, died  suddenly  at  the  house  of  Bishop  White,  on  Monday, 
the  3d  of  August.  Dr.  Smith  was  at  the  same  short  notice  of  a 
single  day  requested  to  preach  a  funeral  sermon.  Both  sermons 
are  good  productions;  the  former, — which,  for  some  reason  not 
known  to  me,  was  not  included  in  the  edition  of  Dr.  Smith's 
Works,  begun  by  Maxwell  of  Philadelphia,  A.  D.  1803 — was  one, 
I  should  say,  of  the  best  of  his  sermons  which  we  have.  It  was 
published  however  at  the  time  at  the  request  of  the  Convention, 
and  from  it  I  make  a  single  extract.  The  topic  of  the  sermon  is 
Christian  Perfection ;  the  opening  passage  of  the  text, — which 
embraces  the  first  twelve  verses  from  the  6th  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews — "  Therefore,  leaving  the  principles  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ,  let  us  go  on  unto  perfection."  Having  developed 
this  fine  theme  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  the  preacher 
concludes : 

Above  all,  my  brethren,  in  the  great  work  now  before  us,  where  the 
honor  of  our  Church,  the  purity  of  our  worship,  true  vital  religion,  and 
the  consequent  happiness  and  salvation  of  millions,  perhaps  yet  unborn, 
are  the  awful  and  important  subjects  of  deliberation — let  us  proceed  with 
candour  and  care,  keeping  the  venerable  sanction  of  antiquity  and  the 
infallible  word  of  God  abvavs  in  our  view;  not  lightly  given  to  change, 
nor  too  rigidly  stiff  in  matters  unessential  to  the  true  substance  of  the 
"faith  once  delivered  unto  the  saints."  In  all  our  proceedings,  however 
much  we  may  desire  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  let  us  also  in  a  special 
manner  seek  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove  also; — adorning  every  other 
acquisition  with  the  clothing  of  humility  and  that  excellent  gift  of  charity. 

But  I  will  detain  you  no  longer.  Having  put  on  that  most  excel- 
lent gift;  trying  the  faith  that  is  in  us  by  tests  and  marks  already  laid 
down  and  laboring  daily  after  greater  attainments  in  holiness,  we  shall 
at  length  arrive  to  that  state  of  spiritual  health  and  perfection  which  is 
the  end  of  all  the  outward  and  visible  ordinances  of  Religion  ;  even  that 
"love  of  God  which  fulfilleth  all  things  in  us  through  Christ  Jesus, 
giving  us  to  eat  of  spiritual  meat  and  drink  of  the  waters  of  health  and 
life  everlasting  freely." 


266  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1789 

Feed  as  then,  O  blessed  God,  we  pray;  feed  us  and  nourish  us  more 
and  more,  with  this  heavenly  meat  and  drink  daily!  and  bring  us  at 
last  to  feed  and  live  upon  it  eternally  !     And  now,  etc. 

Better  counsel,  more  necessary  prayer,  could  no  man  offer,  at 
the  opening  of  this  the  greatest  council  that  the  American  Church 
has  held  ! 

Dr.  Griffith,  on  whom  the  other  sermon  was  preached,  was  a 
native  of  New  York  and  born  a.  d.  1742.  He  was  educated 
chiefly  in  England  and  graduated  in  London  as  a  student  of  med- 
icine; a  profession  which,  returning  to  America,  he  practised  for 
some  time  in  the  province  of  New  York.  In  1770  he  entered  the 
ministry,  being  ordained  by  Bishop  Terrick,  then  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don. After  a  short  residence  in  Gloucester,  New  Jersey,  as 
Missionary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel — 
where  he  succeeded  the  gifted  young  Nathaniel  Evans,  of  whom 
we  have  spoken  so  much  in  our  former  volume — he  went  to  Vir- 
ginia; and  being  highly  recommended  by  the  Governor  of  that 
State,  took  charge  of  Shelburne  Parish,  Loudon  county,  Virginia. 
Here  he  continued  till  May,  1776,  when  he  entered  the  army  as 
Chaplain  to  the  Third  Virginia  Regiment,  and  was  at  the  battle 
of  Monmouth  and  I  suppose  at  other  battles.  He  remained  in 
the  army  till  1779.  In  1780  he  entered  into  the  rectorship  of 
Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  a  church  which  is  known  as  the  one 
in  which  Washington  worshipped.  This  illustrious  man  was  his 
parishioner.  In  May,  1786,  he  was  elected  by  the  Convention  of 
Virginia  to  be  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  that  State,  and  his  testi- 
monials h  iving  been  signed  by  the  General  Convention  at  Wil- 
mington, Delaware,  of  the  same  year,  it  was  expected  both  by  the 
English  Bishops,  and  by  Doctors  White  and  Provoost  that  he 
would  proceed  to  England  and  be  there  consecrated  ;  so  that  there 
should  be  three  bishops  in  America  deriving  consecration  through 
the  Anglican  line.  This,  however,  he  was  unable  to  do,  and,  soon 
after,  he  resigned  to  the  Virginia  Convention  the  honor  proffered 
to  him.  He  was  a  man  of  sincere  piety,  and  of  much  usefulness 
in  the  Church,  and  was  in  the  General  Conventions  (as  we  may 
call  them  to  distinguish  them  from  those  of  Virginia)  of  1784, 
1785,  and  1786.  He  received  his  doctorate  from  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  in  the  last-named  year.  He  died,  as  we  have 
already  said,  in   Philadelphia  while  attending  the  Convention  of 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  267 

1789.  His  funeral  proceeded  from  the  house  of  Bishop  White  to 
Christ  Church;  the  clergy  of  all  denominations  in  Philadelphia 
being  invited  to  attend  it.  The  senior  clerg  men  of  the  deputa- 
tion of  each  State  attended  as  pall-bearers;  Bishop  White  and 
Mr.  Robert  Andrews,  lay  deputy  from  Virginia,  walking  as  chief 
mourners  and  the  other  members  of  the  Convention  as  mourners. 
The  sermon  was  from  those  well-known  verses  of  the  5th  chap- 
ter of  the  2d  Epistle  of  Corinthians : 

1.  For  we  know,  that,  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we 
have  a  building  of  God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

2.  For  in  this  we  groan,  earnestly  desiring  to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house  which 
is  from  heaven. 

3.  If  so  be  that  being  clothed,  we  shall  not  be  found  naked. 

4.  For  we  that  are  in  this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being  burdened  ;  not  for  that  we 
would  be  unclothed,  but  clothed  upon,  that  mortality  might  be  swallowed  up  of  life. 

Dr.  Smith  thus  opens  his  discourse: 

Brethren:  Upon  this  sad  and  solemn  occasion,  which  hath  assem- 
bled us  at  this  place  and  time ;  gloomy  indeed  would  be  oui  reflections, 
and  inconsolable  our  condition,  were  it  not  for  the  joyful  assurance 
which  our  text  holds  up  for  the  renovation  and  support  of  our  sickly 
faith. 

Behold,  in  full  view  before  us,  that  yawning  grave!  On  its  brink,  is 
deposited  the  breathless  clay,  the  earthly  house,  of  a  venerable  brother, 
a  servant  and  minister  of  Christ !  It  is  for  a  moment  deposited,  to  give 
us  pause  for  reflection,  and  vent  for  the  tribute  due  to  the  memory  of 
virtue  and  worth.  That  pause  ended,  the  steadfast  grave  will  do  its 
part;  and  embracing,  in  firm  hold,  what  we  commit  to  its  keeping, 
would  leave  the  awakened  tear  to  flow  forever,  sorrowing  over  our 
mortality,  did  not  St.  Paul  come  to  our  aid  ;  teaching  us  to  wipe  that 
tear  away,  and  to  console  ourselves  with  the  joyful  assurance,  that  the 
earthly  deposit  before  us,  from  a  tabernacle  of  clay,  shall  yet  rise  up  a 
building  of  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  capacious  of  immortal 
glory,  honor  and  immortality ! 

Unprepared  and  disinclined,  on  the  present  sudden  and  interesting 
occasion,  to  enter  upon  a  critical  explication  of  this  difficult,  yet  com- 
fortable, text  (in  whatsoever  sense  considered),  I  shall  not  detain  you 
to  enquire  from  it.  Whether  the  body  or  earthly  house  of  our  present 
mortal  tabernacle  shall,  upon  its  divorce  from  the  soul  by  death,  be 
immediately  clothed  upon  with  some  other  more  celestial  and  incor- 
ruptible body;  or  whether  it  shall  continue  naked  and  unclothed  upon, 
till  the  morning  of  the  resurrection. 

It  was  the  doctrine  of  the  illustrious  Plato,  who  (without  the  external 
and  revealed  light  of  Christianity)  reasoned  so  well  concerning  immor- 


268  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [1789 

tality  and  a  world  to  come,  that  the  soul,  or  heavenly  spark  within  us, 
could  not  subsist  of  itself,  nor  act  without  some  kind  of  body  or  vehicle  ; 
and  therefore  the  followers  of  his  doctrine  contend  for  an  intermediate 
state  between  death  and  the  resurrection,  and  think  that  the  body,  upon 
its  dissolution  by  death,  is  immediately  clothed  upon,  or  changed  into 
some  other  fit  vehicle  for  the  soul. 

St.  Paul,  however,  gives  no  countenance  to  this  doctrine,  in  the  text. 
The  celestial  clothing,  which  he  speaks  of,  is  something  peculiar  to  the 
saints  who  shall  be  with  the  Lord  ;  and  not  to  be  looked  for  till  after 
the  redemption  of  the  body,  and  that  blessed  period  of  the  resurrection, 
"when  this  mortality  shall  be  swallowed  up  of  life; — when  the  trumpet 
shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be  raised,  and  this  corruptible  must  put 
on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  must  put  on  immortality." 

Most  comfortable  to  us,  when  we  go  to  the  house  of  mourning,  is 
either  of  those  doctrines;  but  we  are  to  understand  St.  Paul  in  the 
latter  sense,  and  then  by  the  due  use  of  reason,  enlightened  by  the 
blessed  considerations  and  doctrines  of  our  text,  after  the  example  of 
the  apostles  and  saints,  and  pure  professors  of  Christianity  in  every  age; 
death  might  be  disarmed  of  his  sting  and  spoiled  of  his  victories.  For, 
however  terrible  death  may  appear  to  the  sinner  with  all  his  engines  of 
destruction  about  him  ;  yet  to  those  who  have  sought  and  found  an  in- 
terest in  Christ  Jesus,  death  hath  lost  his  mighty  terrors :  and  although 
the  grave  itself,  which  (considered  as  the  door  of  another  world,  the  en- 
trance into  eternity)  appears  so  gloomy  and  awful  to  mere  flesh  and 
blood ;  yet  to  the  just, — to  those  who  live  by  faith,  earnestly  longing 
and  groaning  to  be  clothed  upon  with  their  heavenly  house,  the  grave 
appears  more  beautiful  than  the  gates  of  paradise  itself;  for  at  the  gates 
of  paradise,  upon  the  banishment  of  our  guilty  first  parents,  the  angry 
cherubim,  with  his  flaming  sword,  was  placed  to  forbid  all  future  en- 
trance to  any  of  mortal  race  ;  but  angels  of  peace  and  love  stand  round 
the  graves  of  the  just,  to  shield  them  from  harm  and  conduct  them  to 
glory.   .   .   . 

We  are  now  assembled  to  pay  the  last  funeral  honors  to  a  minister  of 
the  altar,  who  has  for  many  years  been  conspicuous  in  his  station,  both 
in  public  and  in  private  life;  and  much  might  be  said  as  applicable  to 
the  sudden  and  melancholy  occasion  of  his  death.  And  though  the  sus- 
picion of  flattery  too  often  accompanies  the  funeral  characters  of  the 
present  day,  yet  it  is  for  the  interest  of  virtue  and  mankind  that  they 
should  not  be  brought  wholly  into  disuse.  The  tribute  of  our  praise  and 
thankfulness  to  God  is  due  for  those  who  have,  in  some  degree,  been  of 
benefit  to  the  world,  either  in  a  civil  or  religious  capacity,  and  who  may 
be  truly  said  not  to  have  "lived  to  themselves  but  for  their  country — 
her  rights,  her  laws,  and  her  liberties,  religious  and  civil ;  and,  there- 
fore, at  whatever  stage  of  life  they  have  died,  they  have  died  unto  the 
Lord."     They  have  died  for  us  also,  so  far  as  we  may  improve  their 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  269 

death  to  the  great  public  and  pious  purposes,  for  which  such  holy 
solemnities,  as  the  present,  were  first  appointed  by  the  wisest  nations. 
For — 

1st.  They  were  appointed  for  the  express  purpose  of  commemorating 
the  public  virtues  of  the  dead,  nay  even  their  crimes ;  for  if  they  have 
been  injurious  to  mankind,  they  may  be  held  up  to  censure,  with  the 
great  intent  of  leading  mankind  to  imitate  the  former,  and  to  abhor  and 
shun  the  latter. 

adlv.  Such  solemnities  are  intended  to  bring  us  into  a  proper  famil- 
iarity with  ourselves  and  our  mortal  condition  ;  that  we  may  be  prepar- 
ing for  death,  and  enabled,  through  the  grace  offered  us,  to  overcome 
his  terrors  ! 

Upon  each  of  these  heads,  I  shall  beg  leave  seriously  to  address  you 
on  the  present  occasion. 

After  having  expressed  himself  fully  on  the  first  head,  the 
orator  coming  to  the  second,  proceeds : 

I  come  now  more  particularly  to  speak  of  commemorating  the  virtues 
of  the  dead,  for  the  example  and  benefit  of  the  living.  This  is  an  ad- 
vantage, as  I  said  before,  which  in  these  days  is  seldom  improved. 

The  ancient  Christian:,  besides  the  solemnity  of  their  funerals,  were 
wont  to  meet  at  the  graves  of  their  martyrs  and  saints  and  holy  men,  to 
recite  the  history  of  their  sufferings  and  triumphs,  and  to  bless  God  for 
their  holy  lives  and  happy  deaths,  offering  up  also  their  prayers  for 
grace  to  follow  their  good  example.  And  for  this  they  seem  to  have 
had  St.  Paul's  express  authority,  and  especially  respecting  the  preachers 
and  teachers  of  the  word  of  God.  For  he  exhorts  the  Hebrews  to 
••  remember  them  who  had  spoken  unto  them  the  word  of  God,  whose 
faith  follow,  considering  the  end  of  their  conversation." 

In  this  important  light,  we  must  long  remember  our  worthy  and 
venerable  brother,  who  hath  been  called  suddenly  (but,  we  have  every 
ground  to  believe,  not  wholly  unprepared)  to  exchange  his  pulpit  for  a 
coffin,  his  eloquence  for  silence,  and  his  eminent  abilities  in  doing  good 
for  darkness  and  the  grave. 

In  the  service  of  his  country,  during  our  late  contest  for  Liberty  and 
Independence,  he  was  near  and  dear  to  our  illustrious  commander-in- 
chief — he  was  also  his  neighbor,  and  honored  and  cherished  by  him  as 
a  pastor  and  friend.*  When,  on  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  he  returned 
to  his  -pastoral  charge,  and  our  church  in  these  States,  in  the  course  of 
divine  Providence,  were  called  to  organize  themselves,  as  independent 
of  all  foreign  authority,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  he  was  from  the  begin- 
ning elected    the    chief  clerical    member   to    represent    the    numerous 


*  At  Alexandria  in  Virginia. 


2/0  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1789 

churches  of  Virginia  in  our  General  Conventions;  and  highly  estimable 
he  was  amongst  us.  He  was  a  sound  and  able  divine,  a  true  son,  and 
afterwards  a  father,  as  a  bishop-elect,  of  our  church ;  with  his  voice 
always,  with  his  pen  occasionally,  supporting  and  maintaining  her  just 
rights,  and  yielding  his  constant  and  zealous  aid  in  carrying  on  the  great 
work  for  which  we  are  assembled  at  this  time. 

Full  of  a  devout  desire  for  the  final  accomplishment  of  this  work  at 
the  present  time,  he  came  to  this  city;  but  it  hath  pleased  the  sovereign 
goodness  otherwise  to  dispose  of  him,  and  to  call  him,  as  we  trust,  to 
become  a  member  of  the  church  triumphant  in  Heaven. 

With  Christian  patience  and  fortitude,  though  at  a  distance  from  his 
family  and  his  nearest  relatives  and  friends,  he  sustained  his  short  but 
severe  illness.  Friends,  nevertheless,  closed  his  eyes.  Friends  and 
brethren  now  accompany  him  to  the  grave,  mournful  as  to  the  flesh,  but 
joyful  and  thankful  to  God  in  soul  and  spirit  for  his  past  usefulness  and 
example.    .   .   . 

Let  us  not  question  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  nor  murmuring, 
ask,  Whether  it  were  not  to  be  desired,  that  men  endued  with  eminent 
talents  to  serve  their  country  and  families,  should  be  long  preserved  in 
health  of  body  and  vigor  of  mind  ;  and  that  the  hour  of  their  death 
should  be  protracted  to  the  latest  period  of  old  age  ?  Say  we  not  so. 
For  the  commander  of  an  army  best  knows  when  to  call  the  sentinel 
from  his  post.  Ever)-  man  in  this  world  hath  his  office  and  station 
assigned  by  Heaven,  and  continueth  therein  so  long  as  it  pleaseth  the 
supreme  Ruler ;  and  he  that  performeth  his  part  best  and  liveth  well, 
may  be  said  to  live  longest. 

Seeing,  then,  my  brethren,  that,  by  the  faithful  discharge  of  our  civil 
and  religious  duties,  we  may  overcome  death,  be  prepared  for  eternity, 
and  leave  our  names  sweet  to  the  world  behind  us  ;  let  us  take  for  our 
cxample  the  virtue  and  goodness  of  our  departed  friends,  and  be  pur- 
suaded  that  there  is  no  honor,  no  happiness  to  be  acquired  here  on 
earth,  equal  to  that  which  we  derive  from  acting  our  part  with  dignity; 
steadfast  in  the  practice,  as  well  as  profession,  of  our  holy  religion  ; 
zealous  for  the  happiness  of  our  country  and  mankind,  and  always 
delighting  in  acts  of  love  and  goodness.  The  regard  which  is  paid  to 
such  characters  as  these,  will  grow  with  their  growing  years;  and  when 
they  come  at  last  to  take  leave  of  this  world,  whether  at  an  earlier  or 
later  period  of  years,  as  they  have  lived  the  life  of  the  righteous,  their 
latter  end  will  be  like  his.    .   .   . 

It  is  a  grand  description  which  is  given  of  the  angel  in  the  book  of 
Revelation,  who  came  down  from  Heaven  to  proclaim  destruction  to 
time.  "He  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book  open:  and  he  set  his  right 
foot  upon  the  sea,  and  his  left  foot  on  the  earth,  and  cried  with  a  loud 
voice,  as  when  a  lion  roareth :  and  when  he  had  cried,  seven  thunders 
uttered  their  voices.     And  when  the  seven  thunders  had  uttered  their 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2~J\ 

voices,  I  was  about  to  write  ;  and  I  heard  a  voire  from   Heaven  saying 
unto  me,  Seal  up  those  things  which  the  seven  thunders  uttered  and 

write  them  not.  And  the  angel,  which  I  saw  stand  upon  the  sea  and 
upon  the  earth,  lifted  up  his  hand  to  Heaven,  and  sware  by  him  that 
liveth  forever  and  ever,  who  created  Heaven,  and  the  things  that  therein 
are,  and  the  earth,  and  the  things  that  therein  are,  and  the  sea,  and  the 
things  which  are  therein,  that  there  should  be  time  no  longer"  But  far 
greater  is  the  true  Christian  in  the  act  of  death.  He  sets  one  foot  in  the 
grave,  and  the  other  in  the  very  porch  of  Heaven  ;  being  enabled, 
through  Christ,  to  proclaim  destruction  to  death  and  the  grave.  "Oh, 
death,  1  will  be  thy  plagues:  oh,  grave,  I  will  be  thy  destruction.  Oh, 
death,  where  is  now  thy  sting!  Oh,  grave,  where  is  now  thy  victory!" 
Then,  too,  can  he  add,  without  fear,  "Farewell,  my  body,  my  mortal 
part!  Why  shouldst  thou,  my  soul,  be  loth  to  part  with  thine  old  com- 
panion, to  leave  thy  clay  cottage,  and  to  be  without  a  body?  Behold,  thy 
Maker,  and  the  spiritual  and  heavenly  inhabitants,  have  no  gross  bodies 
such  as  thine  !  Hast  thou  ever  seen  a  prisoner,  when  his  jail  doors  were 
broke  open,  and  himself  manumitted  and  set  loose  at  liberty? — and  have 
you  then  heard  him  complain  to  take  leave  of  his  prison-house,  and 
refuse  to  forego  his  fetters?  Or,  hast  thou  seen  a  wave-worn  mariner, 
who  has  long  been  tossed  and  troubled  on  his  stormy  voyage,  when 
arrived  in  sight  of  his  native  port,  refuse  to  strike  sail  and  enter  in; 
choosing  rather  to  launch  back  again  into  the  perilous  main  ?  Why 
then,  my  soul,  shouldst  thou  be  thus  fear-stricken  and  discomforted,  at 
parting  from  this  mortal  bride,  thy  body?  It  is  but  for  a  time,  and 
such  a  time  as  the  body  shall  feel  no  need  of  thee,  nor  thou  of  her;  and 
thou  shalt  again  receive  her  back  more  goodly  and  beautiful,  purified  and 
perfected  by  absence,  like  unto  that  crystal  which  after  the  revolution 
of  some  ages,  is  said  to  be  turned  into  the  purest  diamond ;  now,  unto 
him  who  by  his  apostle,  hath  assured  us  after  "  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  shall  be  dissolved"  and  moulder  into  dust,  we  have  a  build- 
ing of  God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands,  "eternal  in  the  heavens," — 
unto  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  and  praise  forever!     Amen. 

In  the  Convention  it  was 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Convention  be  given  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Smith  for  his  sermon  preached  at  the  funeral  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Griffith, 
and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  the  Convention  with  a  copy  for 
publication. 

We  have  said  that  one  United  Church  was  first  constituted  out 
of  the  separated  ecclesiastical  bodies  in  the  States  in  1789:  and 
that  to  effect  this  happy  state  of  unity  was  a  work  of  difficulty. 

The  Proposed  Book,  Dr.  White's  tract,  "  The  State  of  the  Epis- 


272  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  \_l7&9 

copal  Churches  in  the  United  States  Considered,"  the  presence 
of  the  laity  voting  in  councils  of  the  Church,  and  especially  the 
introducing  them  into  trials  of  an  ecclesiastic — which  it  was 
wrongly  supposed  by  some  that  it  was  the  purpose  of  Bishop 
White  and  Dr.  Smith  to  do — with  some  things  done  in  the  Con- 
ventions of  1784,  1785  and  1786,  had  caused  dissatisfaction  and 
anxiety  with  the  northern  clergy,  and  some  estrangement. 

But  there  was  another  matter  of  importance.  Bishop  Seabury 
had  been  consecrated  by  Bishops  of  the  Church  in  Scotland  ;  the 
English  Bishops  having  declined  to  consecrate  him  from  reasons 
of  political  prudence  only.  His  personal  fitness — indeed  his  emi- 
nent personal  fitness — even  for  the  high  and  sacred  office  of  a 
Bishop,  no  one  that  I  have  heard  of,  ever  disputed.  He  stands 
forth  and  will  always  stand  forth  as  one  of  the  great,  the  heroic 
characters  of  the  Church  in  America. 

No  man  was  more  able  to  appreciate  the  value  of  this  great 
churchman  and  bishop  than  Dr.  Smith  ;  none  more  able  to  vindi- 
cate his  right  to  the  high  orders  which  he  claimed.  As  a  Scots- 
man, too,  and  a  churchman  alike,  he  felt  a  pride  in  doing  so. 
Accordingly,  immediately  after  the  arrival  in  America  of  Bishop 
Seabury,  with  whom  he  had  long  maintained  an  intercourse  of  a 
free  and  friendly  character,  he  wrote  to  him  informing  him  of  what 
had  been  doing  in  Maryland  in  his  absence,  etc.,  and  receiving 
from  him  the  following  interesting  and  authoritative  statement 
of  the  reasons  why  he  had  accepted  Scottish  orders  rather  than 
English.  Bishop  Seabury,  writing  to  him  on  the  15th  of  August, 
1785,  says  as  follows: 

The  grand  difficulty  that  defeated  my  application  for  consecration  in 
England  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  want  of  an  application  from  the 
Sta/c  of  Connecticut.  Other  objections  were  made,  viz.  :  that  there  was 
no  precise  diocese  marked  out  by  the  civil  authority,  nor  a  stated 
revenue  appointed  for  the  Bishop's  support.  But  those  were  removed. 
The  other  remained — for  the  civil  authority  in  Connecticut  is  Presby- 
terian, and  therefore  could  not  be  supposed  would  petition  for  a  bishop. 
And  had  this  been  removed,  I  am  not  sure  another  would  not  have 
started  up  :  for  this  happened  to  me  several  times.  I  waited,  and  pro- 
cured a  copy  of  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut,  which  puts 
all  denominations  of  Christians  on  a  footing  of  equality  (except  the 
Roman  Catholics,  and  to  them  it  gives  a  free  toleration),  certified  by 
the  Secretary   of  State ;    for  to   Connecticut  all  my  negotiations  were 


I/oQ]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D,  273 

confined.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  wished  it  had  been  fuller, 
but  thought  it  afforded  ground  on  which  to  proceed.  Yet  he  afterwards 
said  it  would  not  do;  and  that  the  Minister,  without  a  formal  requisition 
from  the  State,  would  not  suffer  the  Hill,  enabling  the  Bishop  of  London 
to  ordain  foreign  candidates  without  their  taking  the  oaths,  to  pass  the 
Commons,  if  it  contained  a  clause  for  consecrating  American  Bishops. 
And  as  his  Grace  did  not  choose  to  proceed  without  parliamentary 
authority — though  if  I  understood  him  right,  a  majority  of  the  Judges 
and  Crown  Lawyers  were  of  opinion  he  might  safely  do  it — I  turned 
my  attention  to  the  remains  of  the  old  Scots  Episcopal  Church,  whose 
consecrations  I  knew  were  derived  from  England,  and  their  authority  in 
an  ecclesiastical  sense,  fully  equal  to  the  English  Bishops. 

But  the  succession  through  the  English  line  was  preferred  by 
most  churchmen  in  America;  and  in  the  establishment  of  the 
Church  on  this  great  continent  all  the  clergy  of  the  Middle  and 
Southern  States  were  desirous  to  have  it  if  it  could  be  had.  When 
Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Provoost  sailed  for  England  to  receive  conse- 
cration it  was  expected,  as  we  have  already  said,  that  Dr.  Griffith, 
of  Virginia,  would  accompany  them,  so  that  we  should  then  have 
three  Bishops;  the  number  required  by  a  rule  of  the  Church  of 
England — and  thought  wise  by  ourselves — -to  perform  any  new 
act  of  Episcopal  consecration;  and  all  three  coming  through  the 
Church  just  named.  But  as  we  have  also  said  circumstances  pre- 
vented Dr.  Griffith  going  to  England,  and  he  then  or  afterwards 
finally  resigned  his  honors  to  the  Convention  of  Virginia. 

When,  however,  Bishops  White  and  Provoost  received  their 
consecrations  it  was  understood,  though  never  in  terms,  that  I 
know  of,  agreed  on,  by  the  English  Bishops  and  by  the  two  per- 
sons then  consecrated,  that  before  any  acts  of  consecration  should 
be  performed  by  these  two,  Dr.  Griffith  or  some  other  third  person 
would  come  from  America  and  be  consecrated  in  England  by  the 
English  Bishops ;  .,0  that  any  new  Bishop  consecrated  in  America 
should  have  as  consecrators  three  Bishops  deriving  their  Episcopal 
orders  through  the  Anglican  line.  Indeed  in  the  Convention  of 
1786  the  body  was  barely  organized  when  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  of 
South  Carolina,  moved : 

That  die  clergy  present  produce  their  letters  of  orders  or  declare  by 
whom  they  were  ordained. 

This  motion  was  aimed  at  the  Rev.  Joseph  Pilmore,  a  native  of. 
is 


274  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1789 

Scotland  (long  the  venerable  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Phila- 
delphia), who  had  received  orders  from  Bishop  Seabury',  and  at 
the  Rev.  William  Smith,  of  Stepney  Parish,  Somerset  county, 
Maryland,  who  had  been  ordained  in  Scotland,*  by  a  Bishop  of 
the  Church  from  whence  Seabury  had  obtained  consecration. 
The  application  of  the  previous  question  moved  by  my  ancestor, 
Dr.  Smith,  and  seconded  by  Dr.  White,  precluded  the  discussion 
which  it  was  anticipated  would  grow  out  of  this  motion,  and  the 
resolution  itself  was  lost. 

Dr.  Provoost,  not  satisfied  with  this  expression  of  the  will  of 
the  Convention,  then  moved  directly: 

That  this  Convention  will  resolve  to  do  no  act  that  shall  imply  the 
validity  of  ordinations  made  by  Dr.  Seabury. 

Again  the  previous  question  cut  off  discussion  and  the  main 
question  was  determined  in  the  negative;  New  York,  New  Jersey 
and  South  Carolina  alone  supporting  it.  But  Bishop  Provoost 
would  not  let  the  matter  drop.  In  a  Convention  of  New  York, 
held  November  5th,  1/88,  and  in  view  of  the  General  Convention 
of  1789  now  at  hand,  it  was  resolved: 


*  The  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Davies,  originally  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  hut  long  and 
now  the  honored  Rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadelphia,  well  known  in  that  city, 
not  only  as  one  of  its  ablest  theologians,  but  also  as  among  its  most  learned  ecclesias- 
tical historians,  responding  to  my  solicitations  has  been  kind  enough  to  give  me,  in  a 
friendly  note,  the  following  sketch  of  this  eminent  divine,  already  referred  to  by  me, 
supra,  pages  1 86,  197  : 

"  The  younger  Ur.  William  Smith  was  a  fellow-countryman  and  townsman  of  your 
distinguished  ancestor,  and  was  born  at  Aberdeen  in  1754.  He  came  to  this  country 
in  1785,  after  his  admission  to  Holy  Orders,  and  was  for  two  years  minister  of  Stepney 
Parish,  Maryland.  Most  of  his  ministerial  life,  however,  was  passed  in  New  England, 
where  he  was  successively  Rector  of  St.  Paul's,  Narragansett ;  of  Trinity  Church, 
Newport,  R.  I.,  and  of  St.  Paul's,  Norwalk,  Connecticut.  He  was  subsequently  ap- 
pointed Principal  of  the  Episcopal  Academy,  Cheshire.  He  is  remembered  i"  the 
Church  as  the  compiler  of  the  Institution  Office,  which  was  approved  by  the  General 
Convention  in  1804,  and  was  again  set  forth  with  some  slight  modifications  in  1808, 
and  also  as  the  author  of  a  work  which  attracted  much  attention  in  its  day,  on  Church 
Music,  Chanting  and  Metrical  Psalmo.lv. 

"  He  preached  the  sermon  at  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Jarvis  in  1797,  a  copy  of 
which  is  preserved  in  the  library  of  St.  Peter's  Church. 

"  He  was  a  man  of  eminent  and  versatile  talents,  of  extensive  learning,  of  soundness 
in  the  faith,  and  of  most  exemplary  life.  Had  his  knowledge  of  mankind  been  in  any 
way  equal  to  his  scholastic  attainments,  Ms  usefulness  had  been  greater  and  his  fame 
more  lasting.  He  parsed  the  evermg  of  his  days  in  reti.cment  at  Norwalk,  and  died 
in  New  York  in  1S21,  in  the  69th  year  of  his  age." 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  275 

That  it  is  highly  necessary  in  the  opinion  of  this  Convention  that 
measures  should  be  pursued  to  preserve  the  Episcopal  succession  in  the 
English  line. 

That  the  union  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America  is  of  great  importance  and  much  to  be  desired,  and 
that  the  delegates  of  this  State,  in  the  next  General  Convention,  be  in- 
structed to  promote  that  union  by  every  prudent  measure,  consistent 
with  the  constitution  of  the  Church  and  the  continuance  of  the  Epis- 
copal succession  in  the  English  line. 

These  resolutions  it  appears  were  worded  at  the  particular  request 
of  Bishop  Provoost.  Though  a  man  of  true  Christian  character, 
Bishop  Seabury  was  one  also  of  high  spirit  and  could  not  but  feel 
such  resentments  as  were  allowable  to  a  Christian  and  a  gentle- 
man. He  held  himself  off  from  any  organization  in  which  Bishop 
Provoost  was  to  be  a  leader  or  very  potential  person ;  if  any  such 
organization  there  was  to  be.  He  writes,  June  20th,  1789,  to 
Bishop  White,  who  had  written  to  him  to  urge  his  coming  to  the 
Convention: 

For  my  own  part  gladly  would  I  contribute  to  the  uniformity  of  all 
our  Churches;  but  while  Bishop  Provoost  disputes  the  validity  of  my 
consecration,  I  can  take  no  steps  towards  the  accomplishment  of  so 
great  and  desirable  an  object.  The  point,  I  take  it,  is  now  in  such  a 
state  that  it  must  be  settled  either  by  your  Convention  or  by  an  appeal 
to  the  Christian  world.  But  as  this  is  a  subject  in  which  I  am  per- 
sonally concerned,  I  shall  refrain  from  any  remarks  upon  it;  hoping  that 
the  candor  and  good  sense  of  the  Convention  will  render  the  further 
mention  altogether  unnecessary. 

The  matter  was  the  more  important  since  as  Bishop  Seabury 
went  so  would  go  not  only  Connecticut  but  other,  perhaps,  of  the 
New  England  States.  The  case  required  both  vigor  and  circum- 
spection. To  counteract  this  dangerous  conduct  and  motions  of 
Bishop  Provoost,  Dr.  Smith  wrote  to  Bishop  Seabury  just  before 
the  Convention  assembled  urging  him,  as  Bishop  White  had  done, 
to  come  to  the  Convention ;  Dr.  Smith  offering  to  him  the  hospi- 
tality of  his  house. 

Bishop  Seabury  replies  to  Dr.  Smith. 

New  London,  July  23,  1789. 
....  The  wish  of  my  heart,  and  the  wish  of  the  clergy  and  of  the 
Church  people  of  this  State,  would  certainly  have  carried  me,  and  some 


276  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [  1 789 

of  the  clergy,  to  your  General  Convention,  had  we  conceived  we  could 
have  done  it  with  propriety.  The  ground  on  which  Bishop  Provoost 
dispi'tes  the  validity  of  the  Scotch  Episcopal  succession  can  best  be  ex- 
plained by  himself:  I  know  not  what  it  is.  And  the  ground  on  which 
the  letters  of  orders  were  called  for  from  every  clergyman,  in  a  former 
Convention  at  Philadelphia — if  I  have  been  rightly  informed — i»  order 
to  make  a  distinction  between  English  and  Scotch  ordinations,  they  can 
best  explain  who  were  concerned  in  it.  As  I  know  not  precisely  how 
this  matter  ended,  I  shall  say  no  more  about  it.  But  while  this  matter 
stands  as  it  does,  and  there  is  a  resolve  on  the  minutes  of  the  New  York 
Convention  strongly  reflecting  on  Bishop  Seabury's  Episcopal  character 
— while  by  your  own  constitution  no  representation  of  clergymen  can 
bi  admitted  without  lay  delegates,  and  no  church  can  be  taken  into 
your  union  without  adopting  your  whole  plan,  I  leave  you  to  say 
whether  it  would  be  right  for  me,  or  for  my  clergy,  to  offer  ourselves  at 
a  Convention  where  we  could  be  admitted  only  in  courtesy?  Should 
we  feel  ourselves  at  home?  or,  as  being  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
other  ministers? 

The  necessity  of  a  union  of  all  the  Churches,  and  the  disadvantages 
of  the  present  disunion,  we  feel  and  lament  equally  with  you:  and  I 
agree  with  you,  that  there  may  be  a  strong  and  efficacious  union  between 
Churches  where  the  usages  are  different.  I  see  not  why  it  may  not  be 
so  in  this  case,  as  soon  as  you  have  removed  those  obstructions  which, 
while  they  remain,  must  prevent  all  possibility  of  uniting. 

My  joining  with  Bishops  White  and  Provoost  in  consecrating  a  lourth 
Bishop  was  some  time  ago  proposed  to  Bishop  White,  and  by  him  de- 
clined. His  noncompliance  has  had  a  bad  effect  here.  It  has  raised  a 
jealousy  of  attempting  an  undue  superiority  over  the  Church  of  Con- 
necticut, which,  as  it  at  present  consists  of  nineteen  clergymen,  in  full 
orders,  and  more  than  twenty  thousand  people,  thev  suppose  as  respect- 
able as  the  Church  in  any  State  in  the  Union. 

Before  I  wrote  to  Bishop  White  I  took  the  most  deliberate  pains  to 
obtain  the  sentiments  of  both  clergy  and  laity;  and  I  should  not  now 
think  myself  at  liberty  to  act  contrary  to  their  sentiments,  even  did  not 
my  own  coincide  with  theirs.  I  have,  however,  the  strongest  hope  that 
all  difficulties  will  be  removed  by  your  Convention — that  the  Connect- 
icut Episcopacy  will  be  explicitly  acknowledged,  and  that  Church 
enabled  to  join  in  union  with  you,  without  giving  up  her  own  inde- 
pendency. 

A  great  deal,  my  dear  sir,  will  depend  on  the  part  you  now  act.  The 
dread  of  alterations  in  the  liturgy  here  arises  from  the  observation,  that 
every  review  of  the  liturgy  has  set  the  offices  of  the  Church  lower,  and 
departed  further  from  primitive  practice  and  simplicity.  The  book  you 
published  was  a  remarkable  instance  of  depreciating  the  offices,  and  we 
hope  to  see  it  remedied.     To  enter  into  particular  after  what  I  have 


l/'8g]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2JJ 

written  to  Bishop  White  will  be  useless.  But  if  a  uniformity  of  worship 
be  aimed  at.  I  know  of  no  other  method  besides  the  one  I  mentioned 
to  Bishop  W  nite — to  leave  the  matter  to  the  bishops  and  the  clergy.  It 
is  their  business;  and  if  your  !aity  will  not  consent  to  it,  they  interfere 
out  of  their  sphere * 

Dr.  Smith,  now  in  the  Convention,  on  the  application  which  had 
been  made  by  the  clergy  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire 
for  the  consecration  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bass,  as  their  Bishop,  offered 
to  the  Convention,  which  had  then  resolved  itself  into  a  Commit- 
tee of  the  Whole  the  following  resolves: 

ist.  That  a  complete  order  of  Bishops,  derived  as  well  unoer  the 
English  as  the  Scots  line  of  Episcopacy,  doth  now  subsist  within  the 
United  States  of  America,  in  the  persons  of  the  Right  Rev.  William 
White,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania,  the  Right  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of 
the  said  Church  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  the  Right  Rev.  Samuel 
Seabury,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  said  Church  in  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

2d.  That  the  said  three  Bishops  are  fully  competent  to  every  proper 
act  and  duty  of  the  Episcopal  office  and  character  in  these  United 
States,  as  well  in  respect  to  the  consecration  of  other  Bishops,  and  tne 
ordering  of  priests  and  deacons,  as  for  the  government  of  the  Church, 
according  to  such  rules,  canons  and  institutions,  as  now  are,  or  hereafter 
may  be  duly  made  and  ordained  by  the  Church  in  that  case. 

3d.  That  in  Christian  charity,  as  well  as  of  duty,  necessity  and  ex- 
pediency, the  churches  represented  in  this  Convention  oaght  to  con- 
tribute, in  every  manner  in  their  power,  towards  supplying  the  wants, 
and  granting  every  just  and  reasonable  request  of  their  sister  churches 
in  these  States;  and,  therefore, 

4th.  That  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  White  and  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Pro- 
voost be,  and  they  hereby  are,  requested  to  join  with  the  Right  Rev. 
Dr.  Seabury,  in  complying  with  the  prayer  of  the  clergy  of  the  States 
of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  for  the  consecration  of  the  Rev. 
Edward  Bass,  Bishop-elect  of  the  churches  in  the  said  States;  but  that, 
before  the  said  Bishops  comply  with  the  request  aforesaid,  it  be  pro- 
posed to  the  churches  in  the  New  England  States  to  meet  the  churches 
of  these  States,  with  the  said  three  Bishops,  in  an  adjourned  Convention, 
to  settle  certain  articles  of  union  and  discipline  among  all  the  churches, 
previous  to  such  consecration. 

5th.   That  if  any  difficulty  or  delicacy,  in  respect  to  the  Archbishops 


*  From  the  original  MS.  preserved  among  the  Bishop  White  papers.  As  this  letter 
is  mutilated  more  or  less  on  every  page,  omissions  have  been  supplied  from  the  first 
draft  contained  in  Bishop  Seabury's  Letter  Book. 


2/8  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [1789 

and  Bishops  of  England,  shall  remain  with  the  Right  Rev.  Drs.  White 
and  Provoost,  or  either  of  them,  concerning  their  compliance  with  the 
above  request,  this  Convention  will  address  the  Archbishops  and  Bish- 
ops, and  hope  thereby  to  remove  the  difficulty.* 

These  resolves  were  unanimously  agreed  to,  as  the  report  of  the 
Committee. 

The  Committee,  having  finished  the  business  committed  to 
them,  rose  and  reported  to  the  Convention  the  above  resolves. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Smith,  seconded  by  Mr.  Andrews,  this  report 
was  unanimously  agreed  to. 

Soon  after  this  the  Convention  was  adjourned  till  the  29th  of 
September,  in  order  to  allow  an  opportunity  to  Bishop  Seabury  to 
assist  in  effecting  a  complete  union.  Dr.  Smith  now  immediately 
wrote  to  Bishop  Seabury;  sending  at  the  same  time  a  letter  drafted 
by  him  (Dr.  Smith),  and  signed  by  a  most  respectable  committee. 
We  give  both  from  original  drafts  in  Dr.  Smith's  handwriting : 

Rev.  Dr.  Smith  to  Bishop  Seabury. 

August  16,  17S9. 

Right  Reverend  and  Dear- Sir:  I  was  happy  to  receive  your  letter 
of  23d  July,  in  answer  to  mine  of  the  13th,  from  New  York,  which 
came  to  hand  at  a  very  critical  moment,  viz. :  the  first  day  of  our  Con- 
vention, and  enabled  me  to  be  more  effectually  instrumental  in  project- 
ing and  prosecuting,  I  trust,  to  a  nobler  issue,  the  plan  of  an  union  of 
all  our  churches,  than  your  letter  of  a  prior  date  to  Bishop  White,  gave 
us  room  to  hope.  The  healing  and  charitable  idea  of  "an  efficacious 
union  and  communion  in  all  essentials  of  doctrine,  as  well  as  discipline, 
notwithstanding  some  differences  in  the  usages  of  churches,"  in  which 
your  letter  as  well  as  mine  agreed,  and  which  was  at  the  same  time 
strongly  held  up  in  the  address  of  the  Churches  of  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire,  and  also  in  Dr.  Parker's  letter,  gave  an  opening  at 
last,  as  well  by  a  new  clause,  viz.,  the  second  in  our  ecclesiastical  con- 
stitution, as  by  five  resolves  unanimously  passed,  to  lay  the  foundation 
of  an  union,  whereon  a  superstructure  may  be  raised,  against  which 
even  the  gates  of  Hell  shall  never  prevail. 

The  fourth  of  those  resolves,  inviting  you  through  the  door  so  widely 
opened,  to  meet  us  in  the  Convention  at   Philadelphia,  adjourned  for 

*  This  resolution  had  reference  to  the  fact  already  mentioned  in  the  text,  that  when 
Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Provoost  were  consecrated  at  Lambeth,  the  English  Bishops  were 
told  that  Dr.  Griffith  would  follow  them,  and  the  English  Bishops,  as  well  as  our  own 
then  consecrated,  expected  that  he  would,  and  so  that  there  would  be  three  Bishops 
in  America  under  the  Anglican  title. 


I789]  KEl'-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2JQ 

that  end  to  September  29th,  is  the  preliminary  article  of  this  union; 
and  I  scarce  entertain  a  doubt  but  that  the  great  Head  of  the  Church 
will  by  His  blessed  Spirit,  so  replenish  our  hearts  with  love,  and  so 
bless  our  joint  councils,  that  we  shall  attain  a  perfect  uniformity  in  all 
our  churches:  or,  what  is,  perhaps,  alike  lovely  in  the  sight  of  God,  a 
perfect  harmony  and  brotherly  agreement  wherever,  through  local  cir- 
cumstances and  use,  smaller  differences  may  prevail. 

You  will  see  from  our  printed  journal  herein  enclosed,  that,  in  a  com- 
mittee of  the  whole,  the  business  of  the  Eastern  Churches  engaged  our 
attention  for  the  first  five  days  of  our  sitting,  and  though  a  desire  of 
union  was  everywhere  evident  among  the  members,  yet  much  difficulty 
and  variety  of  sentiment  and  apprehension  prevailed  as  to  the  means, 
in  so  far  that  there  appeared  more  than  a  probability  of  coming  to  no 
conclusion.  In  this  stage  of  the  business,  I  requested  a  postponement 
for  one  night,  on  the  promise  of  proposing  something  against  next 
morning  which  might  meet  the  apprehensions  of  all;  as  we  all  had  but 
one  great  object  of  union  in  view:  and  I  shall  ever  rejoice  in  it  as  the 
happiest  incident  of  my  life,  and  the  best  service  I  have  ever  been  able 
to  render  to  our  Church,  that  the  resolves  which  were  offered  the  next 
morning  were  unanimously  and  almost  instantly  adopted,  as  reconciling 
everv  sentiment,  and  removing  every  difficulty  which  had  before  ap- 
peared to  obstruct  a  general  union. 

Bishop  White,  whom  I  consulted  in  framing  the  resolves,  and  Dr. 
Moore,  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  (now  Dr.)  Smith,  of  South  Carolina, 
were  particularly  zealous  in  whatever  tended  to  promote  this  good  work  ; 
and  I  am  well  assured  that  you  are  in  some  mistake  respecting  Bishop 
White's  having  declined  a  "proposal"  for  your  joining  with  him  and 
Bishop  Provoost  in  consecrating  a  fourth  Bishop.  He  has  assured  me 
and  also  declared  in  Convention,  that  no  such  proposal  was  ever  made 
to  him;  and  I  believe  he  has  written,  or  will  write  to  you  on  this  sub- 
ject. His  whole  conduct,  wherever  your  name  and  Episcopate  have 
been  mentioned,  does  him  honor,  and  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  his  well- 
known  excellent  temper,  and  zeal  for  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Church. 
It  was  Dr.  White  who  seconded,  on  a  former  occasion,  my  motion  for 
not  suffering  any  cmestion  in  Convention,  which  might  imply  even  a 
doubt  of  the  validity  of  your  consecration,  and  that  at  a  time  when 
admitting  a  doubt  of  that  kind  was  considered  by  some  as  a  good  means 
of  forwarding  his  own  and  Dr.  Provoost's  consecration. 

Now,  I  cannot  have  the  least  doubt  of  your  attending  the  adjourned 
Convention,  according  to  the  truly  respectable  invitation  given  you.  I 
must  again  repeat  the  invitation,  that  you  will  make  my  house  your 
home,  or  place  of  residence,  during  your  stay  in  Philadelphia.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Moore,  of  New  York,  will  be  my  other  and  only  guest,  in  the 
chamber  adjoining  yours,  and  he  will  accompany  you  from  New  York 
or  Elizabeth   to   my  house   in   Philadelphia,  as   you  may  agree:   and   I 


28o  LIFE   A. YD    COREESPOXD  EXCE    OF    THE  [1/89 

trust  you  will  be  with  us  a  day  or  two  before  the  29th  of  September, 
rather  than  a  day  after,  as  we  shall  be  pressed  in  respect  of  time.  .  .  . 
The  College  of  Philadelphia  have,  on  Dr.  White's  recommendation 
and  mine,  granted  the  degree  of  D.  D.  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bass  and  Mr. 
Parker,  which  we  thought  a  proper  compliment  to  the  New  England 
Churches.  We  are  sorry  we  forgot  to  pay  the  same  compliment  to  the 
venerable  old  Mr.  Learning,  of  the  Connecticut  Church.  I  hope  he 
will  accompany  you  to  Philadelphia  and  receive  that  compliment  from 
us  in  person,  if  he  has  nowhere  else  received  it  before. 
I  remain,  Right  Reverend  and  Dear  Sir, 

Yours,  etc., 

William  Smith. 

The  Committee  to  Bishop  Seabury. 

Philadelphia,  August  16,  1789. 

Right  Reverend  Sir:  Your  letter  to  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  White, 
and  also  yours  of  a  posterior  date  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  were  laid 
before  the  General  Convention  of  our  Churches,  and  read  with  that 
deference  and  regard  which  are  due  to  the  communications  of  the 
Bishop  and  Pastor  of  a  respectable  sister  Church. 

As  we  "feel  equally  with  you  the  necessity  of  a  general  union  of  all 
our  Churches  in  the  United  States,  and  lament  whatever  may  occur  as 
tending  towards  the  continuance  of  disunion."  those  parts  of  your 
letters  which  had  any  reference  to  this  important  point  became  the 
immediate  subject  of  the  most  affectionate,  candid  and  serious  discus- 
sion; leaving  every  other  part,  either  to  future  joint  deliberations  or  to 
be  noticed  in  the  answers  of  the  gentlemen  to  whom  your  letters  were, 
in  part,  personally  addressed. 

As  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  we  herewith  transmit  to 
vou  the  printed  proceedings  of  our  Convention,  and  also  a  copy  of  our 
Address  to  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  England.  By  those  docu- 
ments you  will  readily  perceive,  that  nothing  hath  been  left  unattempted 
on  our  part,  which  we  conceived  to  be  conducive,  either  towards  the 
basis  or  superstructure  of  an  union,  so  seemly  and  needful  in  itself,  and 
so  ardently  desired  by  all. 

By  the  second  Article  of  our  printed  Constitution  fas  now  amended) 
you  will  observe  that  your  first  and  chief  difficulty  respecting  lay  rep- 
resentation is  wholly  removed,  upon  the  good  and  wise  principles 
admitted  by  you  as  well  as  by  us,  viz.:  "That  there  may  be  a  strong 
and  efficacious  union  between  churches,  where  the  usages  are  in 
some  respects  different."  It  was  long  so  in  the  different  dioceses  of 
England. 

By  the  Article  of  our  Constitution  above  mentioned,  the  admission 
of  yours  and  the  other  Eastern  Churches  is  provided  for  upon  your  070/1 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  28 1 

principles   of  representation ;  while   our   Churches  are  not   required    to 
make  any  sacrifice  of  theirs;  it  being  declared 

That  the  Church  in  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  a  representation  either  of  clergy, 
or  laity,  or  of  both.  And  in  case  the  Convention  [or  Church]  of  any  Slate  should 
neglect  or  decline  to  appoint  their  deputies  of  either  order,  or  if  it  should  be  their  rule 
to  appoint  only  out  of  one  order;  or  if  any  of  those  appointed  should  neglect  to  at- 
tend, or  be  prevented  by  sickness,  or  any  other  accident,  the  Church  in  such  State 
[district  or  diocese]  shall,  nevertheless,  be  considered  as  duly  represented  by  such 
deputy  or  deputies  as  may  attend,  of  either  order. 

Here,  then,  every  case  is  intended  to  be  provided  for,  and  experience 
will  either  demonstrate  that  an  efficacious  union  may  be  had  upon  these 
principles;  or  mutual  good  will,  and  a  further  reciprocation  of  senti- 
ments will  eventually  lead  to  a  more  perfect  uniformity  of  discipline  as 
well  as  of  doctrine. 

The  representation  in  those  States  where  the  Church  appoints  clerical 
deputies  only,  or  chooses  to  be  wholly  represented  by  its  Bishop,  will 
be  considered  as  complete ;  and  as  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  clergy 
will  ever  neglect  to  avail  themselves  of  their  voice  and  negative,  in 
every  ecclesiastical  decision,  so  neither  can  the  laity  complain  in  those 
States  where  they  claim  no  representation,  and  still  less  where  they  are 
declared  to  have  a  voice,  and  claim  a  representation,  but  neglect  to 
avail  themselves  of  their  claim ;  which  latter  is  too  likely  to  be  the  case 
in  some  of  the  States  within  our  present  union,  where  it  is  difficult  to 
procure  any  lay  representation,  although  earnestly  solicited  by  some  of 
the  clergy,  who  are  fully  sensible  of  the  advantages  derived  to  our  for- 
mer Conventions,  from  the  wise  and  temperate  counsels,  and  the  re- 
spectable countenance  and  assistance  of  our  lay  members. 

As  to  the  second  point,  respecting  your  own  consecration  and  the  Scots 
Episcopacy,  we  are  persuaded  that  you  have  fallen  into  some  misappre- 
hension concerning  an  entry  made  in  the  Journal  of  a  former  Conven- 
tion, or  have  been  misinformed  of  the  circumstances  attending  it. 
Nothing  was  ever  agitated  in  that  Convention  concerning  the  Scots 
Episcopacy,  but  the  contrary.  You  may  perceive  by  the  Journal,  that 
the  Convention  refused  to  come  to  any  resolution  which  would  imply 
even  a  doubt  of  the  validity  of  your  consecration  ;  and  the  proceedings 
of  the  present  Convention  upon  that  subject,  we  are  persuaded,  will  be 
more  than  sufficient  to  remove  every  obstacle  of  our  future  union,  which 
might  have  been  apprehended  on  that  score. 

As  the  last  and  greatest  proof  which  we  could  give  of  respect  for  our 
sister  Churches,  and  our  desire  of  their  assistance  in  the  completion  of 
our  ecclesiastical  system,  we  have  postponed  everything  except  what  was 
intended  immediately  to  open  the  door  of  union:  and  have  adjourned 
our  Convention  till  the  29th  day  of  September,  in  the  full  confidence 
of  then  meeting  a  representation  from  all  the  Churches  of  the  Eastern 


282  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \.l7^9 

States,  for  the  purpose  of  devising  and  executing  such  measures  as, 
through  the  blessing  of  God,  may  concentre  all  our  future  labors  in  the 
promotion  of  truth  and  righteousness,  and  for  preserving  our  Church  in 
the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  bond  of  peace. 

We  hope  that  the  time  to  which  the  Convention  had  adjourned  may 
be  found  convenient  to  you  and  to  your  Churches.  An  early  day  was 
necessary,  as  the  members  from  some  of  the  Southern  States  could 
neither  be  detained  long  from  home,  nor  return  to  their  respective 
charges,  with  any  prospect  of  attending  at  any  more  remote  day,  dur- 
ing the  present  year. 

The  day  to  which  the  adjournment  was  made,  viz.,  Tuesday,  Septem- 
ber 29th,  falls  one  week  before  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Corporation 
for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Children  of  the  Clergy,  for  the  States 
of  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  of  which  you  are  a  mem- 
ber; and  the  very  existence  of  that  pious  and  charitable  institution  de- 
pends upon  our  obtaining  a  full  board  for  the  explaining  and  amending 
some  of  the  fundamental  laws.  It  was,  therefore,  proper  to  make  the 
adjournment  of  the  Convention  a  week  earlier  than  the  meeting  of  the 
Corporation,  that  the  business  of  both  might  be  better  transacted  with- 
out interference:  and  the  City  of  Philadelphia  is  the  place  where,  ac- 
cording to  Charier,  the  Corporation  is  to  meet  this  present  year,  and, 
exclusive  of  this  consideration,  Philadelphia  was  considered  as  more 
central  and  convenient,  as  well  as  less  expensive,  perhaps,  to  the  mem- 
bers, than  New  York  during  the  sessions  of  Congress,  and  the  present 
concourse  of  strangers  to  that  city. 

We  have  now  only  to  request  your  acknowledgment  of  the  receipt  of 
this  Address  as  soon  as  convenient  after  it  comes  to  your  hand,  with 
which  we  doubt  not  to  have  the  agreeable  assurance  of  meeting  you 
(and  such  representation  of  your  Church  as  your  own  rules  may  provide) 
in  our  adjourned  Convention  at  Philadelphia,  on  the  said  29th  of  Sep- 
tember next.  We  are,  with  all  respect, 

Your  affectionate  brethren  and  humble  servants, 

William  White, 
William  Smith, 
Samuel  Magaw, 
Francis  Hopkinson, 
Tench  Coxe. 

Letters  so  evincive  of  a  Christian  spirit  found  a  ready  response 
in  the  noble  Seabury's  heart.     He  writes,  at  once: 

I  will,  God  permitting,  most  willingly  join  you  at  your  adjourned 
Convention  on  the  29th  of  September  next. 

The  adjourned  meeting  of  the  Convention  assembled  in  Christ 
Church  September  30th,  1789.     The  minutes  say: 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  283 

The  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Connecticut,  attended,  to  confer  with  the  Convention, 
agreeable  to  the  invitation  given  him,  in  consequence  of  a  resolve 
passed  at  their  late  session ;  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Parker,  Deputy 
from  the  Churches  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  and  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Bela  Hubbard  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Abraham  Jarvis,  Deputies  from 
the  Church  in  Connecticut,  produced  testimonials  of  their  appointment 
to  confer  with  the  Convention,  in  consequence  of  a  similar  invitation. 

On  the  next  day  a  Committee,  of  which  Dr.  Smith  was  the 
Chairman,  was  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Deputies  from  the 
Eastern  Churches  on  the  subject  of  a  proposed  union  with  those 
Churches. 

The  reader  will  remember  that  one  principal  ground  of  opposi- 
tion by  Bishop  Seabury  and  his  friends  to  a  union  was  the  pro- 
vision in  the  General  Ecclesiastical  Constitution  made  by  the  Con- 
vention of  1785,  which  made  the  Convention  consist  of  but  a  sin- 
gle House  or  Chamber,  and  made  a  Bishop  but  a  member  of  a 
Deputation  sent  from  his  State.  Bishop  Seabury  and  his  friends 
desired  that  the  Bishops  should  form  an  independent  House  with 
power  completely  to  negative  the  action  of  the  laity,  if  laymen  were 
to  vote  in  the  councils  of  the  Church  at  all,  as  the  churches  in 
Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere  South  absolutely  insisted  that  they 
should  do. 

The  negotiation  required  great  self-control,  firmness  and  insinua- 
tion, with  dispositions  to  conciliate,  and  readiness  to  yield  in  all  mat- 
ters where  concessions  could  be  safely  made.  Dr.  Smith,  if  old 
John  Adams'  account  of  him,  already  quoted  by  us,  be  correct,  was 
eminently  suited  for  the  diplomatist  of  the  Convention.*  He  met 
the  Right  Reverend  and  the  Reverend  gentlemen  of  the  North, 
and  things  were  made  harmonious.  On  Friday,  October  2d,  1789, 
he  reported  as  follows  : 

That  they  have  had  a  full,  free  and  friendly  conference  with  the  deputies 
of  the  said  Churches,  who,  on  behalf  of  the  Church  in  their  several 
States,  and  by  virtue  of  sufficient  authority  from  them,  have  signified 
that  they  do  not  object  to  the  Constitution  which  was  approved  at  the 
former  session  of  this  Convention,  if  the  third  article  of  that  Constitu- 
tion may  be  so  modified  as  to  declare  explicitly  the  right  of  the  Bishops, 


*  See  our  Vol.  I.,  p.  334.     Adams  characterizes  him  as  "soft,  polite,  insinuating, 
adulating,  sensible,  learned,  industrious,  indefatigable." 


284  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  ^1789 

when  sitting  in  a  separate  House,  to  originate  and  propose  acts  for  the 
concurrence  of  the  other  House  of  Convention,  and  to  negative  such 
acts  proposed  by  the  other  House  as  they  may  disapprove. 

Your  Committee  conceiving  this  alteration  to  be  desirable  in  itself,  as 
having  a  tendency  to  give  greater  stability  to  the  Constitution,  without 
diminishing  any  security  that  is  now  possessed  by  the  clergy  or  laity; 
and  being  sincerely  impressed  with  the  importance  of  an  union  to  the 
future  prosperity  of  the  Church,  do  therefore  recommend  to  the  Con- 
vention a  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  their  brethren,  and  that  the 
third  article  of  the  Constitution  may  be  altered  accordingly.  Upon 
such  alteration  being  made,  it  is  declared  by  the  Deputies  from  the 
churches  in  the  Eastern  States  that  they  will  subscribe  the  Constitution, 
and  become  members  of  this  General  Convention. 

This  report  was  accepted  by  the  Convention  with  a  single  modi- 
fication to  the  effect  that  though  the  Bishops,  when  there  should 
be  three  or  more,  should  form  a  separate  House  with  a  right  to 
originate  and  propose  acts  for  the  concurrence  of  the  House  of 
Deputies  composed  of  clergy  or  laity,  and  that  when  any  proposed 
act  should  have  passed  the  House  of  Deputies,  the  same  should  be 
transmitted  to  the  House  of  Bishops,  the  House  of  Deputies 
should  have  a  negative  thereupon,  provided  that  the  proposed  act 
should  not  be  negatived  by  the  Bishops  if  adhered  to  by  foiw-ffths 
of  the  other  House. 

As  the  States  which  had  been  in  the  Convention  up  to  this 
time  were  but  seven,*  and  as  those  that  now  desired  an  absolute 
right  in  the  House  of  Bishops  to  negative  any  proceedings  were 
three.f  it  was  practically  impossible  to  have  four-fiftlis  of  the 
House  of  the  Deputies  carry  any  measure  without  the  concurrence 
of  these  three.  The  qualification  made  in  the  amendment  of  the 
Report  presented  by  Dr.  Smith  was  probably  made  to  "let  down" 
in  as  easy  a  manner  as  possible  some  of  the  very  low  churchmen 
of  the  South,  and  it  was  disarmed  of  the  last  remnants  of  danger 
to  the  views  of  Bishop  Seabury  and  his  friends, — which  in  reality 
were  the  views  also  of  Bishop  White  and  Dr.  Smith — by  a 
resolution  in  these  words  : 

That  it  be  made  known  to  the  several  State  Conventions  that  it  is  pro- 
posed to  consider  and  determine   in  the  next  General  Convention  on 

*  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina. 

-j-  Connecticut,  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire. 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  285 

the  propriety  of  investing  the  House  of  Bishops  with  a  full  negative 
upon  the  proceedings  of  the  other  House.* 

The  minutes  of  the  Convention  go  on  to  tell  us  that  the  General 
Constitution  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  as  now  altered 
and  amended,  was  laid  before  Bishop  Seabury  and  the  Deputies 
from  the  Churches  in  the  Eastern  States  for  their  approbation  and 
consent,  and  that  after  a  short  time  they  delivered  the  following 
testimony  of  their  assent  to  the  same: 

October  2,  1 789. 
We  do  hereby  agree  to  the  Constitution  of  the  Church,  as  modified 
this  day  in  Convention. 

Samuel  Seabury,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Episcopal 

Church  in  Connecticut. 
Abraham  Jarvis,  A.  M.,  Rector  of  Christ  Church, 

Middletown. 
Bela  Hubbard,  A.  M.,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
New  Haven. 

State  of  Connecticut. 

Samuel  Parker,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
Boston,  and  Clerical  Deputy  for  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire. 

The  minutes  add : 

After  subscribing  as  above,  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Seabury,  and  the 
Clerical  Deputies  aforesaid,  took  their  seats  as  members  of  the  Conven- 
tion. 

Thus  was  the  Union  of  the  Church  in  America,  through  the 
good  efforts  of  Bishop  White  and  Dr.  Smith,  achieved !  For  this 
inestimable  service,  even  more  than  for  their  other  great  services 
to  her,  their  names  should  ever  be  honored  by  the  children  of  the 
Church. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  this  great  act  of  what  we  may  call 
national  ecclesiastical  independence,  and  of  a  more  perfect  ecclesi- 
astical union  was  achieved  in  that  very  Hall  where,  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  1776, — John  Hancock  placing  his  bold  signature  in  the 
front, — was  made  our  national  political  independence  ;  that  same 
Hall  where,  on  the  17th  day  of  September,  1787, — "George  Wash- 

*  With  this  full  negative  the  House  of  Bishops  was  invested  by  the  Convention  of 
1808. 


286  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \j-7%9 

ington,  President  and  Deputy  of  Virginia,"  leading  the  illustrious 
band, — was  signed  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
Inviolable  remain  forever  and  separated  from  all  common  uses  the 
spot  thus  politically  and  ecclesiastically  consecrated  !  * 

The  Convention  of  1789,  as  I  have  mentioned  in  the  text,  first 
met  in  Christ  Church,  and  sat  there  during  the  whole  of  the  origi- 
nal session,  and  our  General  Conventions  have  usually  sat  in  a 
church  as  do  almost  always  our  Diocesan  Conventions. 

But  in  the  case  of  the  Convention  of  1789,  on  the  1st  of  October, 
the  day  before  the  union  was  effected,  the  minutes  say : 

The  meeting  in  Christ  Church  being  found  inconvenient  to  the  members  in  several 
respects,  it  was  resolved  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith  and  the  Hon.  Mr.  Secretary 
Hopkinson  be  appointed  to  wait  upon  his  Excellency  Thomas  Mifflin,  Esquire,  the 
President  of  the  State,  and  request  leave  for  the  Convention  to  hold  their  meeting  in 
some  convenient  apartment  in  the  State  House. 

At  a  later  hour  of  the  same  day  the  entry  is  : 

The  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith  and  Hon.  Mr.  Hopkinson  reported  that  the  President 
of  the  State  had  very  politely  given  permission  to  the  Convention  to  hold  their  meet- 
ings at  the  State  House  in  the  apartments  of  the  General  Assembly  uniil  they  shall  be 
wanted  for  the  public  service. 

Adjourned  to  meet  at  the  State  House  to-morrow  morning. 

*  I  am  quite  aware  that  the  Carpenters'  Company  have,  lately,  pretended — for  it  is 
only  within  a  few  years  that  any  such  pretension  has  been  made — that  the  Federal  Con- 
vention of  1787  sat  in  their  Hall.  The  pretension  is  the  result  of  ignorance  and  as- 
sumption. The  Official  Journal  of  the  Federal  Convention,  Chief  Justice  Yates's  pri- 
vate minutes,  contemporary  newspapers,  the  motion  of  Dr.  Franklin  for  prayers,  June 
28th,  17S7,  and  his  remarks  at  the  close  of  the  Convention  about  the  rising  and  the  set- 
ting sun  on  the  Lack  of  the  Speaker's  chair,  all  show  that  the  Federal  Convention  was 
held  in  the  State  House,  just  as  a  tablet  in  that  edifice  records;  and  the  remarks  of  Dr. 
Franklin,  on  his  motion  for  prayers,  when  read  in  the  light  of  contemporary  historical 
facts,  show  also  (as  indeed  probably  do  his  remarks  about  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun 
on  the  back  of  the  Speaker's  chair)  the  very  room  ;  to  wit,  the  Hall  of  Independence. 
Equally  unfounded  is  the  legend  on  one  of  the  walls  of  the  Hall  that  the  eloquence  of 
Adams,  Hancock  and  Henry  there  inspired  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution.  The  only 
Congress  that  sat  in  Carpenters'  Hall  was  that  of  1774,  and  Hancock  was  not  in  it. 
And  both  these  pretensions  are  as  void  of  truth  as  the  one  put  forth  by  the  orator  of  the 
Hall  (Mr.  Retts)  to  the  Governors  of  the  nine  States,  assembled  there  October  18th, 
1879,  on  their  way  to  Yorktown,  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  sat  there 
during  the  time  that  Philadelphia  was  the  seat  of  the  Federal  Government.  The  min- 
ute-books of  that  Court,  all  preserved  at  Washington,  show  that  the  Court  sat  in  the 
still-existing  handsome  south  room  (obviously  made  for  a  court-room)  in  the  second 
story  of  the  City  Hall,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Chestnut  and  Fifth  streets,  with  one 
or  two  exceptions,  when  it  sat  in  the  State  House  or  in  the  Council  Chamber. 


1789]  HZ*'.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    1).  D.  287 


CHAPTER    LI  I. 

The  Convention  now  becomes  Bi-Cameral— Both  Houses  sit  in  the  State 
House;  the  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies,  over  whom  Dr.  Smith  is 
elected  to  preside,  in  the  chamber  of  independence — strange  vicissi- 
TUDES in  Dr.  Smith's  Liee — The  History  of  the  Formation  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  oe  America— The  House  of  Bishops  consists  of  Bishop 
Seabury  and  Bishop  White,  Bishop  Provoost  absent — The  Selection  of 
Psalms— Some  Comparison  of  the  Proposed  Book  with  the  new  Book 
of  Common  Prayer— Prospects  oe  the  Church — Alterations  of  the 
Prayer  Book  deprecated  unless  in  conjunction  with  the  Church  of 
England,  and  unless  the  Books  of  the  two  Churches  are  made  nearly 
or  quite  alike — Dr.  Smith  writes  an  Address  ordered  by  the  Conven- 
tion to  President  Washington  and  one  to  the  English  Archbishops. 

On  the  union  of  the  Churches  in  the  New  England  States  with 
those  in  the  Middle  and  Southern  by  which  the  Bishops  thus  far 
consecrated  for  America  (Seabury,  White  and  Provoost)  were 
made  members  of  the  Convention,  the  Convention  divided  itself 
into  two  chambers :  that  of  the  House  of  Bishops  and  that  of  the 
House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies.  The  Bishops,  we  are  told 
in  the  Journals,  "withdrew."  They  retired,  I  presume,  to  the 
room  in  the  upper  part  of  the  State  House,  which  was  long  used 
by  the  Governor  and  Council ;  while  the  Clerical  and  Lay  Depu- 
ties remained  on  the  ground  floor,  in  that  chamber,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  edifice,  formerly  known  as  the  Assembly  Room  of  the 
Province,  and  since  as  the  Chamber  of  Independence. 

Immediately  on  the  retirement  of  the  Bishops,  Dr.  Smith  was 
elected  President  of  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies,  and 
was  conducted,  no  doubt,  to  that  same  historic  chair  occupied,  for 
some  years  before  the  Revolution,  by  the  Speakers  of  the  Colo- 
nial Assembly,  in  1776  by  John  Hancock,  and  in  1787  by  George 
Washington.  Dr.  Smith  was  not  a  vain-glorious,  nor  a  self-elating 
man  ;  but  I  should  suppose  that  in  such  a  moment — called  on  as 
he  now  was,  to  preside  over  an  ecclesiastical  assembly  which  might 
fairly  be  called  august — seated  in  that  chair  which  the  Speakers  of 
the  old  Quaker  Legislature  had  once  so  self-complaccntly  filled,  he 


288  LIFE  AXD   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l7&9 

could  not  have  done  other  than  recall  the  scene  in  that  identical 
room  some  thirty  years  before,  when,  summoned  before  the  Legis- 
lature of  Friends — then  the  dominant  power  of  Pennsylvania — for 
what  they  called  a  libel  on  the  Government,  he  was  insulted  by 
these  Broadbrims,  and  with  contempt  for  his  ecclesiastical  orders 
and  his  academic  distinctions  alike,  was  convicted  without  evi- 
dence ;  and  by  a  sentence  unwarranted  by  the  charge  made  against 
him,  sent  to  the  cells  of  the  gaol  at  Walnut  and  Fifth  streets. 

We  have  mentioned  elsewhere,  that  Smith's  life  seems  filled  with 
dramatic  incidents.  This,  perhaps,  is  one  of  them.  So  does  the 
whirligig  of  time  bring  about  its  revenges.  Well  does  it  behoove 
every  man  in  power  to  remember  the  poet's  precept: 

^quam  memento  in  rebus  arduis 
Servare  mentem,  non  secus  in  bonis 
Ab  insolenti  temperatam 
Laetitia,.  moriture  Delli  ! 

But  Dr.  Smith  had  not  much  time  just  now  for  meditation  and 
moralizing.  He  had  to  go  to  work  at  once  with  important  busi- 
ness. 

The  Proposed  Book  had  not  been  adopted  ;  and  a  review  of 
"The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  administrations  of  the  Sacra- 
ments and  other  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  according  to 
the  use  of  the  Church  of  England,"  was  now,  of  course,  in  order. 

Instead  of  appointing  one  large  committee  to  do  the  work  of 
review  and  alteration  for  the  whole  book — the  plan  adopted  in  the 
Convention  of  1785  for  the  Proposed  Book — the  work  of  altera- 
tion and  review  in  the  Convention  of  1789  was  parcelled  out 
among  several  committees — some  of  the  committees  being  ap- 
pointed in  the  House  of  Bishops  and  some  in  the  House  of  Cler- 
ical and  Lay  Deputies. 

Those  appointed  in  the  latter  House,  and,  as  I  suppose,  by  the 
President,  Dr.  Smith,  were  these:  one  to  which  was  given  the 
preparation  of  a  morning  and  evening  service;  a  second,  to  which 
was  given  the  preparation  of  the  Litany,  with  occasional  prayers 
and  thanksgivings;  a  third,  to  which  was  given  the  preparation 
of  a  Calendar  and  Table  of  Lessons  for  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer  throughout  the  year;  a  fourth,  to  which  was  given  the 
preparation  of  an  order  for  the  administration  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion; a  fifth,  to  which  was  given  the  duty  of  reporting  in  what 


I/89]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMI 7 II,  D.  D.  289 

manner  the  Psalms  should  be  used.  Other  parts  of  the  Prayer 
Book  were  taken  in  hand  in  the  House  of  Bishops — we  can  hardly 
say  were  placed  in  charge  of  committees,  since  the  House  con- 
sisted of  but  two  persons,  one  of  whom,  Bishop  Seabury,  presided, 
and  the  other,  Bishop  White,  constituted  the  bod}',  where  motions 
were  made,  seconded  and  carried;  he  being  the  "be-all"  and 
"end-all"  of  everything  outside  of  the  Bishop  presiding.*  Bishop 
Provoost  kept  himself  away  from  the  Convention.  He  had  been 
"indisposed" — indisposed,  perhaps,  to  come  to  it — at  the  original 
Convention.  He  became  more  and  more  "indisposed"  with  the 
prospects  of  "  Dr.  Cebra's"  presidency  and  powers,  and  almost 
threatened  a  secession,  which,  however,  he  never  executed  prior 
to  1 801,  when  he  sought  to  resign  his  Episcopate,  a  resignation 
which  was  not  deemed  admissible  nor  accepted. f 

The  Bishops  in  their  "  House"  renewed,  if  I  remember,  the  ser- 
vice for  the  Public  Baptism  of  Infants;  made  alterations  in  the 
English  form  of  the  solemnization  of  Matrimony,  in  the  Order  for 
the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  in  the  Order  for  the  Communion  of  the 
Sick,  in  the  form  for  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners,  in  the  Order  for 
the   Burial  of  the   Dead,  alterations  in  the  Catechism  and  in  the 

*  While  the  Convention  sat  in  Christ  Church,  the  "  House  of  Bishops"  sat  in  its  ■ 
"  Vestry  Room,"  a  small  place  on  the  north  of  the  pulpit,  and  about  seven  feet  wide  by 
twelve  long.     The  "  House"  was  a  very  small  one,  no  doubt,  but  still  large  enough 
for  the  two  persons  who  composed  it,  and  their  Secretary,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Clarkson. 

f  The  feeling  between  Bishop  Seabury  and  Bishop  Provoost  threatened  at  one  time 
serious  results.  Bishop  Provoost  did  not  even  call  upon  his  Right  Reverend  Brother 
while  the  latter  was  in  New  York.  He  openly  denied  the  validity  of  the  Bishop  of 
Connecticut's  Episcopal  orders,  and  in  private  letters  wrote  of  him  as  "  Bishop  Cedra," 
an  inexcusable  impropriety  if  meant  for  an  indignity,  though  lessened  by  the  fact  that 
there  was  a  family  on  Long  Island  where  Bishop  Seabury  had  once  been  that  thus 
wrote  their  name.  The  fact  was  that  Bishop  Seabury  had  been  an  avowed  Tory — a 
Chaplain,  during  the  war,  in  a  British  regiment,  and  after  the  war  a  recipient  of  half- 
pay.  Bishop  Provoost  had  been  a  strong  Whig  from  the  beginning,  and  is  said,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  sudden  attack  by  the  British,  to  have  himself  taken  up  arms.  Dr.  Smith, 
seeing  the  dangerous  consequences  which  such  a  state  of  relations  between  two  Bish- 
ops— from  whatever  cause  arising — threatened  to  the  infant  Church,  sought  at  the 
earliest  date  to  bring  the  two  gentlemen  into  harmonious  intercourse.  He  spoke  on 
the  subject  to  Bishop  White,  who  responded  to  all  his  anxieties  and  wishes.  Other 
common  friends  were  brought  into  council,  and  Dr.  Smith  suggested  that  Bishop  Sea- 
bury should  make  a  visit  to  Bishop  Provoost,  the  latter  agreeing  to  be  at  home  to  re- 
ceive it.  Bishop  Seabury  agreed  to  make  the  visit.  Bishop  Provoost  received  the 
visit  cordially,  and  asked  Bishop  Seabury  to  dine  with  him  on  the  same  day,  inviting 
Bishop  White,  Dr.  Smith  and  others  to  meet  him.  The  invitation  was  accepted,  and 
from  that  time  relations  of  harmony  were  restored.  His  efforts  to  bring  about  this  happy 
reconciliation  Dr.  Smith  considered  among  the  good  acts  of  his  life. 

19 


29O  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Vl7^9 

Order  of  Confirmation.  This  House,  too,  prepared  a  Form  of 
Family  Prayer,  the  form  and  the  maimer  of  setting  forth  the 
Psalms  in  metre,  a  Ratification  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  with 
the  exception  of  the  36th  and  37th,  and  put  other  parts  of  the 
Book  into  shape. 

The  Prayer  Book,  as  now  used  in  the  American  Church,  was 
thus  very  completely  the  joint  work  of  the  two  Houses,  each 
House  doing  its  full  share;  each  acting  freely  upon  the  work  of 
the  other,  but  each  with  perfect  respect,  good-will  and  good  man- 
ners toward  that  other,  although  we  know  that  the  House  of 
Bishops  did  not  fully  approve  all  that  was  finally  agreed  on; 
it  agreeing  to  all,  however,  as  in  nothing  essentially  wrong.  Dr. 
Smith's  preface  to  the  old  Proposed  Book,  shortened  and  slightly 
altered — but  with  its  essential  thoughts  and  much  of  its  exact 
language  retained — made  the  preface  to  the  new  volume. 

I  ought  not  here  perhaps  to  omit  a  little  anecdote,  illustrative 
of  what  I  state  just  above,  and  which  comes  to  me  in  a  private 
letter  from  that  well-known  and  much-honored  divine  of  our 
Church,  the  Rev.  Thomas  W.  Coit,  D.  D.,  derived  by  him  from 
the  lips  of  the  late  Dr.  Samuel  Farmar  Jarvis,  and  given  to  Dr. 
Coit  as  Dr.  Coit  himself  says,  with  that  gentleman's  characteristic 
interest  when  relating  anything  of  vital  consequence  pertaining  to 
the  history  of  our  American  Prayer  Book.  "I  presume,"  says  Dr. 
Coit,  "  that  Dr.  Jarvis  had  it  from  his  father,  who  may  have  been  on 
the  spot  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence."     Dr.  Coit  continues: 

Bishops  Seabury  and  White  constituted  the  House  of  Bishops  when 
our  present  Communion  Office  was  about  to  be  proposed  to  the  House 
of  Deputies  for  their  adoption.  The  two  Bishops  preferred  the  Scotch 
Communion  Service  to  the  English,  and  after  they  had  sent  it  to  the 
House  of  Deputies  felt  anxious  and  timid  about  the  result;  and  well 
they  might,  when  the  Athanasian  Creed  had  been  ignored,  the  Nicene 
treated  with  ominous  neglect,  and  even  the  simple  Creed  of  the  Apostles 
submitted  to  tinkering — a  blemish  inflicted  on  it  which,  even  to  this 
late  day,  our  Church  has  not  had  the  courage  to  erase! 

The  Bishops  sent  for  Dr.  Smith,  then  President  of  the  House  of 
Deputies,  for  a  private  conference.  They  frankly  admitted  that  they 
had  gone  to  the  Scotch  Communion  Office  for  a  material  portion  of 
their  labors.  But  as  Dr.  Smith  was  a  born  Scotchman,  this  was  a  com- 
pliment to  his  country,  which  subdued  his  prejudices,  if  he  had  any. 
He  agreed  to  introduce  the  new  office  to  the  House  of  Deputies  and 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  29I 

recommend  it  for  adoption.  The  next  day  he  informed  the  House  of 
the  document  entrusted  to  him,  and  of  its  variations  from  the  better 
known  office  of  the  Church  of  England.  A  storm  began  to  brew,  and 
hoarse  whispers  about  popery  reached  his  ears.  He  rose  in  his  place, 
and,  exclaiming,  "Hear — [pronouncing  it  Heyre\ — before  ye  judge," 
began  to  read.  Dr.  Smith  was  a  superb  reader  and  withal  had  just 
enough  of  a  Scotch  brogue  to  make  his  tones  more  musical  and  his  em- 
phasis more  thrilling.  He  soon  caught  attention,  and  read  his  paper 
through  without  a  single  interruption,  his  hearers  becoming  more  and 
more  absorbed  and  charmed.  When  he  had  finished,  the  new  office 
was  accepted  with  acclamations.  Wherefore,  if  there  is  anything  in 
our  Communion  Office  which  Churchmen  of  the  present  day  delight  in, 
not  to  say  glory  in,  they  should  hold  the  memory  of  Dr.  William  Smith 
in  cherished  admiration.  If  he  had  not  read  the  office  into  the  accept- 
ance of  the  House  over  which  he  presided,  a  cold,  hard  vote  might 
have  consigned  it,  with  the  Athanasian  symbol,  into  what  the  Orientals 
used  to  call  "The  Castle  of  Oblivion."" 

The  whole  book  was  finally  ratified  by  both  Houses;  and  a 
committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Magaw,  Dr.  Blackwell 
of  the  clergy,  with  Francis  Hopkinson  and  Tench  Coxe  of  the 
laity  (Bishop  White,  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  consenting  to  ad- 
vise with  the  committee),  were  appointed  to  superintend  the  print- 
ing of  the  new  book,  either  in  octavo  or  in  folio,  or  in  both,  and 
also  to  have  an  edition  published  "to  contain  only  the  parts  in 
general  use  and  the  Collects  of  the  day  with  references  to  the 
Epistles  and  Gospels." 

The  preparation  of  a  Selection  of  Psalms,  to  be  used  instead 
of  the  Psalms  for  the  day,  at  the  discretion  of  the  minister,  origi- 
nated in  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies;  and,  I  presume, 
was  suggested  by  Dr.  Smith,  who,  knowing  that  the  Psalter  as 
arranged  in  the  Proposed  Book  was  not  acceptable  to  Bishop 
Seabury,  Dr.  Chandler  and  some  other  persons — and  adhering  to 
his  own  opinion  that  the  Psalms  for  the  day  as  fixed  in  the  Psalter 
were  confessedly  not  always  appropriate  for  a  mixed  assembly — 

*This  anecdote,  in  substantial  form  if  not  in  circumstantial  variety,  receives  con- 
firmation— if,  indeed,  coming  to  me  from  the  source  which  it  does,  it  needs  any  con- 
firmation— in  what  Bishop  White  tells  us.  He  states  that  "the  great  change  made  in 
restoring  to  the  consecration  prayer  the  oblatory  words  and  the  invocation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  left  out  in  King  Edward's  reign  ;  "  met,  in  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Depu- 
ties, with  the  disposition,  in  a  few  gentlemen,  to  oppose  it,  "  which  was  counteracted  by 
some  pertinent  remarks  of  the  President."      (Memoirs,  2d  edition,  page  154.) 


292  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [1789 

fell  on  this  happy  idea,  a  happy  one  I  must  myself  call  it ;  al- 
though I  am  aware  that  in  so  far  as  it  makes  selections  of  verses 
from  Psalms  instead  of  selections  of  Psalms  from  the  Psalter — 
which  it  does  in  the  case  of  about  one-third  of  the  Psalms  selected 
— it  is  open,  to  a  certain,  though  far  inferior  degree,  to  the  objec- 
tions made  to  the  Psalter  as  given  in  the  Proposed  Book.  No 
doubt  some  beautiful  Psalms  are  not  in  the  selections.  But  the 
Psalms  of  the  regular  Psalter  for  many  days  are  free  from  objec- 
tion. So  the  omission  of  certain  verses  in  certain  Psalms — except 
that  brevity  was  sought  for — may  be  called,  as  it  has  been  called, 
capricious;  the  verses  omitted  being  in  themselves  as  appropriate 
nearly  or  quite  as  others  left.  But  brevity  was  one  object  of  the 
Selections.  The  seventh  and  eighth  Selections  were  suggested 
by  Bishop  White.  Certainly — with  all  that  may  be  suggested 
against  them — the  Selections  are  distinguished  by  great  beauty. 
The  choice  and  the  arrangement  are  indicative  alike  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Psalter  and  of  rich  and  exquisite  taste.  I  have  al- 
ready expressed  my  great  surprise  that  the  clergy  so  seldom  use 
these  selections — which  if  they  object  to  any  omission  of  any 
verse  in  any  Psalm  they  can  still  do,  for  some  of  the  selections  are 
of  Psalms  in  their  entirety;  but  on  the  contrary,  with  a  dull  for- 
mality, worthy  of  the  compilers  of  an  almanac,  stick  doggedly  to 
"days  of  the  month,"  and  force  upon  their  parishioners  as  "  Psalms 
of  David"  compositions  some  of  which  are  not  David's  Psalms  at 
all ;  and  others  of  which,  whether  so  or  not,  are  certainly  incom- 
prehensible to  the  common  readers,  even  when  understood — 
which  they  are  not  always — by  the  minister.  I  find  no  fault  with 
the  clergy;  but  only  with  their  forcing  upon  mixed  congregations 
certain  Psalms  which  they  should  never  make  a  mixed  congrega- 
tion read  anywhere  but  in  their  own  closets,  and  with  the  com- 
mentaries of  Bishop  Home  and  the  more  ponderous  and  partner- 
ship volumes  of  Drs.  Neale  and  Littledale  as  expositions. 

I  am  not  disposed  to  institute  any  comparisons  between  the 
Proposed  Book  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  now  in  use 
in  the  United  States.  In  some  particular  respects  I  prefer,  and  I 
think  that  churchmen  in  this  day  generally  would  prefer,  what  we 
find  in  the  former  book.  In  its  abbreviation  of  the  beautiful, 
tender  and  sublime  conclusion  of  the  Bcncdictus  (St.  Luke  ii.  68) 
I  think  the  Convention  of  1789  made  a  great  mistake.     What  can 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  293 

be  more  beautiful  than  the  eight  verses  in  the  Proposed  Book  in 
sequence  to  the  four  in  our  present  book  from  which  they  are  cut 
off?     What  more  beautiful  especially  than  these  concluding  ones: 

And  thou,  Child,  shalt  be  called  the  Prophet  of  the  Highest:  for 
thou  shalt  go  before  the  face  of  the  Lord  to  prepare  his  ways; 

To  give  knowledge  of  salvation  unto  his  people:  for  the  remission 
of  their  sins. 

Through  the  tender  mercy  of  our  God :  whereby  the  Day-spring  from 
on  high  hath  visited  us; 

To  give  light  to  them  that  sit  in  darkness,  and  in  the  shadow  of 
death:   and  to  guide  our  feet  into  the  way  of  peace. 

I  think  that  the  Convention  of  1789  made  as  bad  mistakes  or 
worse  in  supplying  the  Magnificat  and  the  Nunc  Demittis  of  the 
early  Church  and  retained  in  the  Proposed  Book,  by  anything 
whatsoever:  I  think  that  the  same  Convention  made  an  equal 
mistake  in  making  as  part  of  the  Litany  or  penitential  supplication, 
a  general  Thanksgiving  with  the  prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom  and 
the  minor  Benediction,  accompanied  by  a  right  to  the  minister 
officiating  to  introduce  one,  two,  or  any  number  of  special  prayers 
and  special  Thanksgivings,  and  leaving  it  discretionary  with  him 
to  omit  some  of  the  grandest  and  most  affecting  parts  of  the 
true  and  real  Litany;  down,  I  mean,  to  the  prayer,  "We  humbly 
beseech  thee"  I  think  that  in  taking  away  the  exhortations  to  the 
Communion  from  the  place  where,  acting  by  Dr.  Smith's  sugges- 
tion, the  committee  in  charge  of  the  Proposed  Book  put  them — 
that  is  to  say,  at  the  very  beginning  of  "The  Communion" — and 
restoring  them  to  the  place  where  they  now  are,  after  the  prayer 
for  Christ  Church  militant — and  so  dividing  the  service  (one  ser- 
vice rightly  viewed)  into  the  "ante-Communion"  and  "  the  Com- 
munion,"— the  term  "ante-Communion,"  a  term  not  found,  I  think, 
in  the  Prayer  Book — thus  cnconragitig  the  departure  of  the  parish- 
ioners from  the  great  service  of  the  Church — they  have  lowered 
that  office  to  such  a  degree  that  in  a  measure  it  loses  its  proper 
influence.* 

*  Led  on  by  this  error — I  spealc  it  reverently — of  the  Convention  of  1789,  some  of 
our  low-Church  clergy — after  having  got,  from  those  who  do  not  communicate,  their 
money,  which,  if  there  is  a  communion,  the  Church  contemplates  should  be  the  offer- 
ing of  those  who  do — that  is  to  say  of  all  adults  present — persons  whom  the  Church 
supposes  are  baptized  and  confirmed — pronounce,  with  no  authority  whatsoever,  the 
minor  Benediction  in  the  midst  of  the  Communion  ;  so,  in  fact,  dismissing  the  whole 


294  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPOXDEXCE    OF   THE  [I/89 

And  I  do  not  know  that  on  the  whole,  in  and  by  and  for  itself, 
the  Prayer  Book,  as  set  forth  by  the  Convention  of  1789,  has 
given  more  satisfaction  than  would  have  been  given  by  the  Pro- 
posed Book. 

YVe  know,  at  least,  that  at  all  times,  many  of  the  low-church 
clergy  have  taken  pretty  much  what  liberties — in  one  direction — 
they  liked  with  it ;  violating  its  express  rubrics,  omitting  of  it 
what  they  disliked,  inserting,  of  their  own,  what  they  liked  better, 
and  sometimes  exhibiting  a  manifest  disrelish  for  the  whole  Prayer- 
Book  by  meetings,  morning  and  .evening,  for  prayer,  where  the 
orders  for  morning  and  evening  prayer,  daily  throughout  the  year, 
were  completely  set  aside.  We  know,  too,  that  animated  and 
encouraged  by  the  example  set  by  this   low-church  party,  and 

congregation;  first,  however,  some  of  these  clergy  at  least,  interpositing  in  a  way  the 
most  unauthorized,  an  address  of  their  own,  telling  the  people  whom  they  are  about  to 
dismiss,  with  the  grace  of  the  Lord,  that  "our  Church  invites  everybody  who  loves 
the  blessed  Saviour — of  whatever  Christian  denomination — to  draw  nigh  and  unite 
in  the  Holy  Communion  :  "  an  invitation  which  is  unwarranted  by  any  rubric  in  the 
service,  which  is  directly  in  the  face  of  that  one  appended  to  the  order  of  Confirma- 
tion declaring  that  "there  shall  be  none  admitted  to  the  Holy  Communion  "  until  such 
time  as  he  be  confirmed  or  be  ready  and  desirous  to  be  confirmed ;  which  is  discoun- 
tenanced by\he  first  rubric  in  the  ministration  of  baptism  of  those  of  riper  years,  and 
which  proceeds,  I  presume,  on  a  misconception  of  what  the  Church  means  in  the  priest's 
address  to  those  who  come  to  receive  the  Holy  Communion.  Do  the  clergy  who  inter- 
polate the  Holy  Office  with  such  addresses  of  their  own,  regard  it  as  any  part  of  "  God's 
commandments  "  that  people  should  be  baptized,  or  be  certified  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands,  of  God's  favor  and  gracious  goodness  towards  them  ? 

Suppose  some  respectable  person,  educated  in  the  Society  of  Friends — a  Friend  still 
in  reality,  though  not  attending  "  Meeting  "  much,  nor  liking  the  total  disregard  of 
forms  which  the  sect  imposes  on  its  members,  but  still  undoubtedly  as  he  or  she  be- 
lieves "loving  the  blessed  Saviour"  and  looking  upon  a  participation  in  the  Commun- 
ion as  an  affecting  ceremony — a  very  proper  way  of  testifying  publicly  that  love — but 
looking  on  it  in  no  other  way  and  not  at  all  as  a  means  of  grace — were  to  come  to  the 
Communion  habitually,  in  a  church  where  such  a  speech  as  I  have  mentioned  is  habit- 
ually made.  The  minister  would,  in  due  lime,  I  suppose,  call  on  the  person,  inquire 
if  he  or  she  had  been  confirmed,  or  was  ready  and  desirous  to  be  so.  The  answer  would 
be,  "  Xo,  I  do  not  believe  in  Confirmation.  Besides,  I  have  never  been  baptized  in 
thy  way.  I  do  not  believe  in  water-baptism.  I  never  mean  to  be  baptized  with  water. 
With  the  Spirit  I  trust  I  have  been  baptized."  The  clergyman,  if  he  did  his  duty, 
would  reply:  "  Sir,  or  Madame,  or  Miss,  if  such  are  your  views  and  such  your  pur- 
poses, I  am  bound  to  let  you  know  that  a  rubric  of  the  Church  declares  that  you  shall 
not  be  admitted  to  the  Communion."  The  replication  would  be,  "Ah,  indeed,  that's 
new  to  me  !  I  thought  that  thou  saidst  at  thy  Chancel,  that  thy  Church  cordially  in- 
vited all  who  loved  the  blessed  Saviour — of  whatever  name  or  sect — to  come."  What 
would  be  the  rejoinder  of  this  priest?  The  Church,  assuredly,  never  disparaged  its 
sacrament  of  Baptism  and  its  holy  rite  of  Confirmation,  as  these  of  its  clergy,  by  their 
unauthorized  interpolations  into  its  most  solemn  office,  make  her  do. 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  295 

"bettering  the  example," — so  far  as  making  a  worse  result  is  con- 
sistent with  the  meaning  of  the  phrase — an  opposite  class  in  the 
Church  have  committed  pretty  much  the  same  violence  on  the 
Book;  fraudulently  embellishing  their  proceedings  with  various 
sorts  of  Romish  ceremonial  and  infusing  through  the  whole  so 
considerable  a  quantity  of  Romish  doctrine  and  discipline,  that 
if  Rip  Van  Winkle  was  a  Churchman,  and,  after  his  long  sleep, 
happened  to  go  into  some  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Churches 
of  New  York  called  "  Ritualistic,"  he  certainly  would  never  believe 
in  what  sort  of  a  Church  he  was.  He  would  look  amazed,  in- 
deed, when  he  was  told  that  this  was  the  exact  Church  of  Samuel 
Provoost,  and  Benjamin  Moore,  and  John  Henry  Hobart,  and 
Benjamin  Tredwcll  Onderdonk,  and  Jonathan  Mayhew  YVainright; 
and  be  very  apt  to  doubt  when  he  was  really  yet  awake  and  in  his 
right  senses  at  all. 

Then  to  come  to  people  very  different  indeed  from  the  two 
parties,  one  of  whom  would  carry  the  Church  to  the  Methodists 
and  the  other  to  Rome,  did  not  the  House  of  Bishops  itself,  in  the 
General  Convention  of  1826,  almost,  if  not  altogether,  unanimously 
agree  to  reform  the  Book  in  a  most  sweeping  way — to  leave  out 
on  all  days,  but  on  those  especially  appointed  for  humiliation,  the 
whole  Litany;  to  allow  two  alterations  in  the  office  for  Confirma- 
tion; to  allow  alteration,  at  the  minister's  discretion,  upon  what 
are  called  "prayer  days"  in  the  lessons;  to  give  to  the  minister 
on  all  days  a  permission,  both  in  the  morning  and  evening  ser- 
vices, to  exercise  discretion  as  to  the  number  of  Psalms  and  to  the 
portions  of  lessons;  provided  only  in  regard  to  each  lesson  that 
there  be  at  least  fifteen  verses.  This  was  bringing  things  back 
again  in  some  respects  to  the  Proposed  Book  ;  and  if  we  may 
credit,  as  I  rather  think  we  may,  the  statement  made  in  that  en- 
tertaining and  instructive  "  Life  of  the  First  Bishop  of  Vermont" 
(at  the  time  that  I  am  speaking  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania),  by  his  son,  the  Rev.  John  Henry  Hopkins, 
it  was  only  through  the  read)'  powers  of  debate  of  that  remark- 
able first-named  person — in  whom  legal  knowledge,  powers  of 
argument  and  the  resources  of  sarcasm  were  united  in  a  high 
degree  as  in  a  rare  conjunction — that  the  thing  was  defeated  by 
the  negative  of  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies. 

Still,  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  great  value  of  the  Prayer  Book 


296  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1789 

of  1789;  nor,  taken  as  a  whole,  do  I  deny  its  superiority  to  the 
"Proposed  Book."  The  length  of  the  Morning  Service  and  some 
few  matters  quas  incuriafiid.il*  are  the  greatest  objections  that  I 
think  of  to  it.  I  am  certainly  ready  to  admit  that  in  so  far  as 
in  its  weight  and  body,  the  new  liturgy  comes  nearer  to  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England,  than  did  the  Pro- 
posed Book,  a  great  point  for  the  future  is  gained.  The  Church 
in  America  and  the  Church  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  over 
the  vast  colonial  possessions  of  the  latter  nation  are  made  by  it 
really  one.  United  in  doctrine  it  is  most  desirable  that  they  be 
united  in  that  which  largely  with  most  people,  and  with  many, 
entirely,  both  explains  and  preserves  doctrine.  The  present 
"Common  Prayers"  of  the  Church  of  England  and  of  our  Church 
— each  having  the  same  articles  of  religion — do,  in  the  main, 
unite  the  two  churches.  Perhaps  each  would  do  well  never  to 
seek  to  make  an  union  more  complete.  The  subject  assuredly 
ought  never  to  be  thrown  open  to  motions  and  debate  in  any  large 
bodies,  nor  to  be  agitated  by  newspaper  or  other  form  of  popular 
and  prolonged  discussions,  nor  in  any  form  calculated  to  be  a 
dangerous  one.  The  remarks  of  a  well-known  representative  in 
the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania, f  A.  d.  1834,  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  review  the  then  very  good  Constitution  of  the  State, 
apply  with  force  to  the  subject  which  we  are  now  considering. 

The  right  of  the  people  to  alter  their  government  in  such  a  manner 
as  they  may  think  proper,  is  a  right  not  to  be  questioned.  But  it  is  a 
right  which  a  people  having  a  government  under  which  they  enjoy  great 
happiness  and  great  prosperity,  ought  to  call  into  exercise  with  extreme 
caution.     No  system   of  government   will   be  satisfactory  to   all ;  and 

*  I  need  not  refer  to  that  almost  shocking  one  in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  by  which,  through  the  interposition  of  a  word  or  two  in  the  part  of  our  "  In- 
vocation," imported  from  the  "  Prayer  of  Consecration,"  used  by  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land— the  latter  of  which  reads,  "  beseeching  thee  that  whosoever  shall  be  partakers 
of  this  Holy  Communion,"  while  ours  is,  "  beseeching  thee  that  we  and  all  others 
who  shail  be  partakers  of  this  Holy  Communion  " — makes  us,  by  adhering  literally 
to  the  rest  of  the  prayer  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  exclude  the  parties  ofkring  the 
prayer  from  the  benefits  meant  to  be  invoked  !  The  omission  in  the  Prayer  Book  of 
1789  of  the  directions  contained  in  the  rubric  of  the  English  Book,  how,  in  the  Morning 
Service,  the  First  Lesson  is  to  be  read, — "  distinctly,  with  an  audible  voice ;  he  that  read- 
eth  so  standing  and  turning  himself  as  best  to  be  heard  by  all  present " — makes  sense- 
less the  rubric  in  our  book,  that  the  Second  Lesson  is  to  be  read  "in  like  manner." 

f  The  late  John  Bradford  Wallace,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  representing  at  the  time 
the  county  of  Crawford,  in  the  northwestern  part  of  Pennsylvania. 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  297 

when  we  begin  to  change  it  who  shall  say  where  the  changes  shall  end? 
Sound  wisdom  has  therefore  adopted  it  as  a  maxim  that  it  is  better  to 
endure  some  small  detects  in  a  good  system,  than  to  endanger  the  sys- 
tem by  throwing  it  open  to  change.  If  it  could  be  practically  required 
that  every  point  upon  which  a  change  was  desired  should  be  acknowl- 
edged by  a  majority  of  the  people  to  be  an  evil,  and  a  concurrence  of 
the  same  majority  in  establishing  a  remedy,  there  would  be  no  great 
danger  in  attempting  the  alteration.  But  the  danger  is  this:  One  man 
is  dissatisfied  with  a  particular  provision  in  the  constitution.  A  second 
is  content  with  that,  but  dislikes  another.  A  third  person  approves 
both  those  provisions,  but  thinks  some  other  very  objectionable,  and  so 
on  to  a  great  extent.  Each  prefers  the  constitution  to  stand  as  it  is, 
with  the  exception  of  only  the  particular  part  which  he  objects  to. 
Passions  are  excited,  prejudices  are  strengthened:  and  eventually  all 
make  common  cause,  and  each  to  obtain  his  own  alteration,  unites  with 
the  others  to  obtain  theirs:  And  thus  a  majority  is  obtained  for  many 
alterations,  when  the  judgment  of  the  same  majority  is  opposed  to  the 
adoption  of  any  one,  and,  of  course,  of  every  one  of  them. 

Still,  the  eye  of  hopeful  anticipation  cannot  but  sometimes  fancy 
that  it  sees  a  pleasing  sight  in  future  days.  The  Church  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  Church  in  America  have  come  of  late  years  into  an 
intercourse  both  close  and  frequent.  Our  Bishops  will  soon  out- 
number the  English  Bishops.  Perhaps  they  do  so  now.  In  the 
writings  of  such  men  as  Seabury,  White,  Dehon,  Hobart,  H.  U. 
Onderdonk,  Ravenscroft,  Hopkins,  Doane,  DeLancey,  Whitting- 
ham  and  Odenheimer  among  the  Bishops,  and  of  Dr.  Chandler, 
Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  S.  F.  Jarvis,  Dr.  S.  H.  Turner,  Dr.  Coit,  Dr.  Bow- 
den,  Dr.  Chapman,  Dr.  Dorr,  and  many  others,  probably,  not 
known  to  me,  in  the  lower  orders  of  the  ministry,  we  have  made 
contributions  to  a  common  theology  which  recall  the  days  of  Sher- 
lock and  Horseley  and  Seeker  and  Porteus.  Our  Bishops  are  con- 
stantly visiting  England  and  deriving  new  inspirations  from  what 
they  see  in  that  ancient  land.  The  mitred  lords  of  England  are 
coming  often  here,  and,  seated  in  honor  in  our  Conventions,  are 
gaining  for  themselves  and  their  Church  hardly  less  than  we  have 
got  from  England. 

I  look  forward  to  the  day  when  the  Church  in  England  shall  be 
disestablished  and  relieved  from  that  onerous  tribute  which  she 
now  pays  to  the  State.  When  that  occurs — and  each  church  is  an 
ecclesiastical  body  alone — we  shall  surely  come  more  closely 
together.     Even  as  things  are,  we  could  perhaps  dp  so ;  and  pos- 


300  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1789 

a  numerous  and  extended  Church,  we  most  thankfully  rejoice  in  the  elec- 
tion of  a  civil  ruler,  deservedly  beloved,  and  eminently  distinguished 
among  the  friends  of  genuine  religion — who  has  happily  united  a  tender 
regard  for  other  churches  with  an  inviolable  attachment  to  his  own. 

With  unfeigned  satisfaction  we  congratulate  you  on  the  establishment 
of  the  new  Constitution  of  government  of  the  United  States,  the  mild 
yet  efficient  operations  of  which,  we  confidently  trust,  will  remove  every 
remaining  apprehension  of  those  with  whose  opinions  it  may  not  entirely 
coincide,  and  will  confirm  the  hopes  of  its  numerous  friends.  Nor  do 
these  expectations  appear  too  sanguine,  when  the  moderation,  patriotism 
and  wisdom  of  the  honorable  members  of  the  Federal  legislature  are  duly 
considered.  From  a  body  thus  eminently  qualified,  harmoniously  co- 
operating with  the  Executive  authority  in  constitutional  concert,  we  con- 
fidently hope  for  the  restoration  of  order  and  of  our  ancient  virtues, — 
the  extension  of  genuine  religion, — and  the  consequent  advancement  of 
our  respectability  abroad,  and  of  our  substantial  happiness  at  home. 

We  devoutly  implore  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  Universe  to  preserve 
you  long  in  health  and  prosperity, — an  animating  example  of  all  public 
and  private  virtues, — the  friend  and  guardian  of  a  free,  enlightened,  and 
grateful  people,— and  that  you  may  finally  receive  the  reward  which  will 
be  given  to  those  whose  lives  have  been  spent  in  promoting  the  happiness 
of  mankind. 

The  President's  Answer. 

To  the  Bishops,  Clergy,  and  Laity  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Jlfary- 
land,   Virginia,  and  South  Carolina,  in  General  Convention  assembled. 

Gentlemen  :  I  sincerely  thank  you  for  your  affectionate  congratula- 
tion on  my  election  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  United  States. 

After  having  received  from  my  fellow-citizens  in  general  the  most  lib- 
eral treatment — after  having  found  them  disposed  to  contemplate,  in  the 
most  flattering  point  of  view,  the  performance  of  my  military  services, 
and  the  manner  of  my  retirement  at  the  close  of  the  war — I  feel  that  I 
have  a  right  to  console  myself,  in  my  present  arduous  undertaking,  with 
a  hope  that  they  will  still  be  inclined  to  put  the  most  favorable  construc- 
tion on  the  motives  which  may  influence  me  in  my  future  public  trans- 
actions. 

The  satisfaction  arising  from  the  indulgent  opinion  entertained  by  the 
American  people,  of  my  conduct,  will,  I  trust,  be  some  security  for  pre- 
venting me  from  doing  anything,  which  might  justly  incur  the  forfeiture 
of  that  opinion.  And  the  consideration  that  human  happiness  and  moral 
duty  are  inseparably  connected,  will  always  continue  to  prompt  me  to 
promote  the  progress  of  the  former,  by  inculcating  the  practice  of  the 
latter. 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  3OI 

On  this  occasion  it  would  ill  become  me  to  conceal  the  joy  I  have  felt 
in  perceiving  the  fraternal  affection  which  appears  to  increase  everyday 
among  the  friends  of  genuine  religion.  It  affords  edifying  prospects  in- 
deed, to  see  Christians  of  different  denominations  dwell  together  in  more 
charity,  and  conduct  themselves,  in  respect  to  each  other,  with  a  more 
Christian-like  spirit  than  ever  they  have  done  in  any  former  age,  or  in 
any  other  nation. 

I  receive,  with  the  greatest  satisfaction,  your  congratulations  on  the 
establishment  of  the  New  Constitution  of  Government;  because  I  be- 
lieve its  mild,  yet  efficient,  operations  will  tend  to  remove  every  remain- 
ing apprehension  of  those,  with  whose  opinions  it  may  not  entirely  coin- 
cide, as  well  as  to  confirm  the  hopes  of  its  numerous  friends ;  and  be- 
cause the  moderation,  patriotism,  and  wisdom  of  the  present  Federal 
Legislature  seem  to  promise  the  restoration  of  order  and  our  ancient  vir- 
tues— the  extension  of  genuine  religion — and  the  consequent  advance- 
ment of  our  respectability  abroad,  and  of  our  substantial  happiness  at 
home. 

I  request,  Most  Reverend  and  respectable  Gentlemen,  that  you  will 
accept  my  cordial  thanks  for  your  devout  supplications,  to  the  Supreme 
Ruler  of  the  Universe  in  behalf  of  me.  May  you,  and  the  people  whom 
you  represent,  be  the  happy  subjects  of  Divine  Benediction  both  here 
and  hereafter  ! 

George  Washington. 
August  19,  17S9. 

Address  No.  II. 

An  Address  to  the  Most  Reverend  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 

and  York. 

Most  Venerable  and  Illustrious  Fathers  and  Prelates: 
We.  the  Bishops,  Clergy,  and  Laity  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina,  impressed  with  every  sentiment 
of  love  and  veneration,  beg  leave  to  embrace  this  earliest  occasion,  in 
General  Convention,  to  offer  our  warmest,  most  sincere,  and  grateful 
acknowledgments  to  you,  and  (by  your  means)  to  all  the  venerable 
Bishops  of  the  Church  over  which  you  preside,  for  the  manifold 
instances  of  your  former  condescension  to  us,  and  solicitude  for  our 
spiritual  welfare.  But  we  are  more  especially  called  to  express  our 
thankfulness  for  that  particular  act  of  your  fatherly  goodness,  whereby  we 
derive,  under  you,  a  pure  Episcopacy  and  succession  of  the  ancient  Or- 
der of  Bishops,  and  are  now  assembled,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  as 
a  Church  duly  constituted  and  organized,  with  the  happy  prospect  before 
us  of  a  future  full  and  undisturbed  exercise  of  our  holy  religion,  and  its 
extension  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  this  continent,  under  an  ecclesiastical 


302  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \}7%9 

constitution,  and  a  form  of  worship,  which  we  believe  to  be  truly  apos- 
tolical. 

The  growing  prospect  of  this  happy  diffusion  of  Christianity,  and  the 
assurance  we  can  give  you,  that  our  churches  are  spreading  and  flourish- 
ing throughout  these  United  States,  we  know,  will  yield  you  more  solid 
joy,  and  be  considered  as  a  more  ample  reward  of  your  goodness  to  us, 
than  all  the  praises  and  expressions  of  gratitude  which  the  tongues  of 
men  can  bestow. 

It  gives  us  pleasure  to  assure  you,  that,  during  the  present  sitting  of 
our  Convention,  the  utmost  harmony  has  prevailed  through  all  our  de- 
liberations ;  that  we  continue,  as  heretofore,  most  sincerely  attached  to 
the  faith  and  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  that  not  a  wish 
appears  to  prevail,  either  among  our  Clergy  or  Laity,  of  ever  departing 
from  that  Church  in  any  essential  article. 

The  business  of  most  material  consequence  which  hath  come  before 
us,  at  our  present  meeting,  hath  been,  an  application  from  our  sister 
churches  in  the  Eastern  States,  expressing  their  earnest  desire  of  a  gen- 
eral union  of  the  whole  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States,  both  in 
doctrine  and  discipline  ;  and,  as  a  primary  means  of  such  union,  pray- 
ing the  assistance  of  our  Bishops  in  the  consecration  of  a  Bishop  elect 
for  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire.  We  therefore 
judge  it  necessary  to  accompany  this  address  with  the  papers  which  have 
come  before  us  on  that  very  interesting  subject,  and  of  the  proceedings 
we  have  had  thereupon,  by  which  you  will  be  enabled  to  judge  concern- 
ing the  particular  delicacy  of  our  situation,  and,  probably,  to  relieve  us 
from  any  difficulties  which  may  be  found  therein. 

The  application  from  the  Church  in  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire  is  in  the  following  words,  viz.  : 

The  good  providence  of  Almighty  God,  the  fountain  of  all  goodness,  having  lately 
blessed  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  by  supply- 
ing it  with  a  complete  and  entire  ministry,  and  affording  to  many  of  her  communion 
the  benefit  of  the  labors,  advice  and  government  of  the  successors  of  the  Apostles: 

We,  Presbyters  of  said  Church  in  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
deeply  impressed  with  the  most  iively  gratitude  to  the  Supreme  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse, for  his  goodness  in  this  respect,  and  with  the  most  ardent  love  to  his  Church, 
and  concern  for  the  interest  of  her  sons,  that  they  may  enjoy  all  the  means  that  Christ, 
the  great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls,  has  instituted  for  leading  his  followers  into  the 
ways  of  truth  and  holiness,  and  preserving  his  Church  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and 
the  bond  of  peace,  to  the  end  that  the  people  committed  to  our  respective  charges 
may  enjoy  the  benefit  and  advantage  of  those  offices,  the  administration  of  which  be- 
longs to  the  highest  order  of  the  ministry,  and  to  encourage  and  promote,  as  far  as  in 
us  lies,  a  union  of  the  whole  Episcopal  Church  in  these  States,  and  to  perfect  and 
compact  this  mystical  body  of  Christ,  do  hereby  nominate,  elect  and  appoint,  the  Rev. 
Edward  Bass,  a  Presbyter  of  the  said  Church,  and  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  in  Newbury- 
port,  to  be  our  Bishop ;  and  we  do  promise  and  engage  to  receive  him  as  such  when 
canonically  consecrated,  and  invested  with  the  apostolic  office  and  powers  by  the 
Right  Reverend  the  Bishops  hereafter  named,  and  to  render  him  all  that  canonical 


1/39] 


REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.   D.  303 


obedience  ami   submission  which,  by  the  laws  of  Christ,  and  the  Constitution  of  our 
Church,  is  due  to  so  important  an  office. 

And  we  now  address  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishops  in  the  States  of  Connecticut 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  praying  their  united  assistance  in  consecrating  our  said 
brother,  and  canonically  investing  him  with  the  apostolic  office  and  powers,  This  re- 
quest we  are  induced  to  make  from  a  long  acquaintance  with  him,  and  from  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  his  being  possessed  of  that  love  to  God  and  benevolence  to  men,  that 
piety,  learning,  and  good  morals,  that  prudence  and  discretion,  requisite  to  so  exalted 
a  station,  as  well  as  that  personal  respect  and  attachment  to  the  communion  at  large  in 
these  States,  which  will  make  him  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  Order,  and,  we  trust,  a 
rich  blessing  to  the  Church. 

Done  at  a  meeting  of  the  Presbyters  whose  names  are  underwritten,  held  at  Salem, 
in  the  County  of  Essex,  and  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  the  fourth  day  of  June, 
Anno  Salutis,  17S9. 

SAMUEL  Parker,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston. 

T.  FlTCH  OLIVER,  Rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church,  Marblehead. 

John  Cousens  Ogden,  Rector  of  Queen's  Chapel,  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. 

WILLIAM  MONTAGUE,  Minister  of  Christ  Church,  Boston. 

Tili.otson  Brl'NSON,  Assistant  Minister  of  Christ  Church,  Boston. 

A  true  copy. 
Attest:  Samuel  Parker. 
At  the  meeting  aforesaid, 

Voted, — That  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker  be  authorized  and  empowered  to  transmit 
copies  of  the  foregoing  Act,  to  be  by  him  attested,  to  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishops 
in  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania;  and  that  he  be  appointed  our  agent,  to 
appear  at  any  Convocation  to  be  holden  at  Pennsylvania  or  New  York,  and  to  treat 
upon  any  measures  that  may  tend  to  promote  an  union  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
throughout  the  United  States  of  America,  or  that  may  prove  advantageous  to  the 
interests  of  the  said  Church.  Edward  Bass,  Chairman. 

A  true  copy. 
Attest:  Sami'el  Parker. 

This  was  accompanied  with  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker,  the 
worthy  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  to  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop 
White,  dated  June  21st,  1789,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

The  Clergy  here  have  appointed  me  their  agent,  to  appear  at  any  Convocation  to 
lie  held  at  New  York  or  Pennsylvania ;  but  I  fear  the  situation  of  my  family  and  parish 
will  not  admit  of  my  being  absent  so  long  as  a  journey  to  Philadelphia  would  take. 
When  I  gave  you  encouragement  that  I  should  attend,  I  was  in  expectation  of  having 
my  parish  supplied  by  some  gentlemen  from  Nova  Scotia,  but  I  am  now  informed  they 
will  not  be  here  till  some  time  in  August.  Having,  therefore,  no  prospect  of  attend- 
ing in  person  at  your  General  Convention  next  month,  I  am  requested  to  transmit  you 
an  attested  copy  of  an  act  of  the  Clergy  of  this  and  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  elect- 
ing the  Rev.  Edward  Bass  our  Bishop,  and  requesting  the  united  assistance  of  the 
Right  Reverend  Bishops  of  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  Connecticut,  to  invest  him 
with  apostolic  powers.  This  act  I  have  now  the  honor  of  enclosing,  and  hope  it  will 
reach  you  before  the  meeting  of  your  General  Convention  in  July. 

The  clergy  of  this  State  are  very  desirous  of  seeing  an  union  of  the  whole  Episco- 
pal Church  in  the  United  States  take  place  ;  and  it  will  remain  with  our  brethren  at  the 
southward  to  say,  whether  this  shall  be  the  case  or  not — whether  we  shall  be  an  united 
or  divided  church.  Some  little  difference  in  government  may  exist  in  different  States, 
without  affecting  the  essential  points  of  union  and  communion. 


304  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1789 

In  like  spirit,  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Seabury,  Bishop  of  the  Church  in 
Connecticut,  in  his  letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  dated  July  23d,  writes 
on  the  subject  of  union,  etc.,  as  followeth : 

The  wish  of  my  heart,  and  the  wish  of  the  Clergy  and  of  the  Church  people  of  this 
State,  would  certainly  have  carried  me  and  some  of  the  Clergy  to  your  General  Con- 
vention, had  we  conceived  we  could  have  attended  with  propriety.  The  necessity  of 
an  union  of  all  the  Churches,  and  the  disadvantages  of  our  present  dis-union,  we  feel 
and  lament  equally  with  you;  and  I  agree  with  you,  that  there  may  be  a  strong  and 
efficacious  union  between  churches,  where  the  usages  are  different.  1  see  not  why  it 
may  not  be  so  in  the  present  case,  as  soon  as  you  have  removed  those  obstructions 
which,  while  they  remain,  must  prevent  all  possibility  of  uniting.  The  Church  of  Con- 
necticut consists,  at  present,  of  nineteen  clergymen  in  full  orders,  and  more  than 
twenty  thousand  people  they  suppose,  as  respectable  as  the  Church  in  any  State  in  the 
union. 

After  the  most  serious  deliberation  upon  this  important  business,  and 
cordially  joining  with  our  brethren  of  the  eastern  or  New  England 
Churches  in  the  desire  of  union,  the  following  resolves  were  unanimously 
adopted  in  Convention,  viz. : 

Resolved, —  1st.  That  a  complete  Order  of  Bishops,  derived  as  well  under  the  English 
as  the  Scots  line  of  succession,  doth  now  subsist  within  the  United  States  of  America, 
in  the  persons  of  the  Right  Rev.  William  White,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania;  the  Right  Rev.  Samuel  Provoost,  D.  D., 
Bishop  of  the  said  Church  in  the  State  of  New  York;  and  the  Right  Rev.  Samuel 
Seabury,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  said  Church  in  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

2d.  That  the  said  three  Bishops  are  fully  competent  to  every  proper  act  and  duty  of 
the  Episcopal  office  and  character  in  these  United  States ;  as  well  in  respect  to  the  con- 
secration of  other  bishops,  and  the  ordering  of  Priests  and  Deacons,  as  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  according  to  such  Canons,  Rules,  and  institutions  as  now  are,  or 
hereafter  may  be,  duly  made  and  ordained  by  the  Church  in  that  case. 

3d.  That  in  Christian  charity  as  well  as  of  duty,  necessity,  and  expediency,  the 
Churches  represented  in  this  Convention  ought  to  contribute,  in  every  manner  in  their 
power,  towards  supplying  the  wants,  and  granting  every  just  and  reasonable  request  of 
their  sister  churches  in  these  States;  and  therefore  resolved, — 

4th.  That  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  White  and  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Provoost  be,  and  they 
hereby  are  requested  to  join  with  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Seabury  in  complying  with  the 
prayer  of  the  Clergy  of  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  for  the  con- 
secration of  the  Rev.  Edward  Bass,  Bishop  elect  of  the  churches  in  the  said  States;  but 
that,  before  ihe  said  Bishops  comply  with  the  request  aforesaid,  it  be  proposed  to  the 
churches  in  the  New  England  States  to  meet  the  Churches  of  these  States,  with  the 
said  three  Bishops,  in  an  adjourned  Convention,  to  settle  certain  articles  of  union  and 
discipline  among  all  the  churches,  previous  to  such  consecration. 

5th.  That  if  any  difficulty  or  delicacy,  in  respect  to  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of 
England,  shall  remain  with  the  Right  Rev.  Drs.  White  and  Provoost,  or  either  of 
them,  concerning  their  compliance  with  the  above  request,  this  Convention  will  address 
the  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  and  hope  thereby  to  remove  the  difficulty. 

We  have  now,  most  venerable  Fathers,  submitted  to  your  considera- 
tion whatever  relates  to  this  important  business  of  union  among  all  our 


I/89]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  305 

churches  in  these  United  States.  It  was  our  original  and  sincere  inten- 
tion to  have  obtained  three  bishops,  at  least,  immediately  consecrated  by 
the  Bishops  of  England,  for  the  seven  States  comprehended  within  our 
present  union.  But  that  intention  being  frustrated  through  unforeseen 
circumstances,  we  could  not  wish  to  deny  any  present  assistance,  which 
may  be  found  in  our  power  to  give  to  any  of  our  sister  churches,  in  that 
way  which  may  be  most  acceptable  to  them,  and  in  itself  legal  and 
expedient. 

We  ardently  pray  for  the  continuance  of  your  favor  and  blessing,  and 
that,  as  soon  as  the  urgency  of  other  weighty  concerns  of  the  Church 
will  allow,  we  may  be  favored  with  that  fatherly  advice  and  direction, 
which  to  you  may  appear  most  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  prosperity 
of  our  Churches,  upon  the  consideration  of  the  foregoing  documents  and 
papers. 

Done  in  Convention  this  eighth  day  of  August,  1789,  and  directed  to 
be  signed  by  all  the  members  as  the  act  of  their  body,  and  by  the  Presi- 
dent officially. 


CHAPTER  LIII. 

Restoration  by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  of  the  Charter  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Philadelphia,  Unjustly  taken  away  in  1779 — An  Anecdote 
Illustrative  of  Dr.  Smith's  ready  humor — He  takes  leave  of  the 
Convention  in  Maryland — Bishop  White's  Trirute  to  his  Services 
to  the  Church  and  Otherwise  in  that  State — Dr.  Wroth's  Account 
of  Washington  College — Dr.  Smith's  return  to  Philadelphia,  July 
ist,  17S9 — Proposed  Inscription  upon  his  College — Proceedings  in  the 
different  branches  of  the  Reconstruction — First  Commencements, 
Medical,  and  in  the  Departments  of  Arts,  since  the  Restoration — ■ 
Union  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  with  the  University  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  under  the  name  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania— The  Rev.  John  Ewing  elected  Provost — The  new  institu- 
tion LANGUISHED  AND  CONTINUED    TO   LANGUISH    FOR    MANY    YEARS,  AND    UNTIL 

the  Provostship  of  Dr.  Stille — Dr.  Smith  preaches  before  the  Cin- 
cinnati, July  4TH,  1790 — Engagement  and  Marriage  of  his  son  Charles 
with  Miss  Veates — Death  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Goldsborough — 
Beautiful  Inscription  on  her  Tomb — Letters  in  connection  with  her 
Death. 

The  last  chapter  ends  Dr.  Smith's  ecclesiastical  history  for  the 
year  1789.  But  for  the  year  he  had  in  addition  one  which  was 
collegiate  and  personal.  He  had  labored  so  perseveringly  and 
with  so  much  ability  to  have  the  old  College  of  Philadelphia  re- 
stored to  its  rights  that  in  the  end  he  succeeded  ;  and  on  the  6th 
of  March,  1789,  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  declaring  the  Act 


306  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  \j7%9 

of  1779  repugnant  to  justice  and  in  violation  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  State,  restored  the  ancient  charter,  with  all  its  privileges. 
His  position  as  Provost,  if  he  chose  to  occupy  again  the  place, 
which  for  the  mere  vindication  of  his  honor  it  was  supposed  that 
he  would,  was  at  his  command. 

In  connection  with  his  efforts  to  procure  the  passage  of  the  re- 
pealing act  we  may  mention  a  piece  of  the  Provost's  ready  wit. 
On  the  morning  of  passing  this  Act,  while  the  members  were  col- 
lecting themselves,  and  before  the  Speaker  took  the  chair,  Dr. 
H ,  a  good-natured  man,  but  a  great  politician  and  of  abdomi- 
nal dimensions  more  than  aldermanic,  came  into  the  Committee 
Room,  and  offered  to  a  member  a  paper  by  way  of  a  Rider  to  the 
engrossed  Bill,  requesting  him  to  present  the  same  to  the  House. 
The  member  handed  it  to  Dr.  Smith,  who  happened  to  be  near. 
Dr.  Smith  hastily  looked  over  it,  and  finding  its  purport  was  to  in- 
demnify what  was  called  the  University  from  any  particular  ac- 
count of  their  expenditure  of  the  College  stock  and  property 
during  their  usurpation  of  eight  years  and  upwards,  returned  it  to 

the  member,  who  went  into  the  House,  and  Dr.  H after  him. 

Dr.  Smith  got  a  piece  of  paper  and  wrote  extempore  as  follows : 

The  Rider. 
1. 

"On  mischief  bent,  by  Evving  sent,* 
With  Rider  in  his  hands, 
Comes  Doctor  Guts,  with  mighty  struts, 
And  thus  of  Smith  demands : 

2. 

"  '  This  Rider,  sir,  to  save  all  stir, 
By  Master  Ewing's  will, 
I  bring  in  haste,  pray  get  some  pa;tc, 
And  tack  it  to  your  Bill.' 

3- 
"  Smith  lifts  his  eyes — '  Hoot  !   mon,'  he  cries, 
'  Take  back  your  stupid  stuff, 
Our  answer's  brief,  the  crafty  thief 
Has  ridden  lang  enuff.'  " 

*  Dr.  Ewing,  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  who  had  supplanted  Dr. 
Smith,  was  a  Presbyterian. 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  2>°7 

This  being  privately  thrown  on  the  table  of  the  Speaker,  who 
was  a  man  of  humor,  it  was  soon  handed  to  some  of  the  nearest 
members,  and  spread  through  the  House  with  a  laugh  which  did 
more  to  smother  the  poor  Rider  IN  CUNABULIS  than  many  long 
speeches  could  have  done. 

On  the  2d  of  June  the  Sixth  Annual  Convention  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church  of  Maryland  was  held  in  Baltimore.  Dr.  Smith  was 
elected  President. 

Before  it  finally  adjourned  he  made  known  to  it  that  he  was 
about  to  retire  from  the  State  and  return  to  Pennsylvania.  The 
Convention  was  deeply  affected  by  the  intelligence,  and  directed 
its  Secretary  to  assure  him  that  "  their  minds  were  strongly  im- 
pressed with  a  grateful  sense  of  the  services  he  had  rendered  to 
learning  and  religion  by  his  attention  to  those  important  concerns 
and  to  return  to  him  their  sincere  thanks." 

We  need  not  specify  the  great  services  which  Dr.  Smith  did  to 
both  the  Church  and  to  literature  in  Maryland  during  his  resi- 
dence there.  Bishop  White,  after  speaking  of  the  perils  to  which 
the  Church  in  th'at  State  had  been  exposed  by  the  Legislature, 
which,  though  consisting  of  men  of  various  denominations,  "  took 
up,"  he  says,  "  the  subject  of  organizing  the  Church,  and  particu- 
larly of  appointing  ordainers  to  the  ministry," — and  of  the  two 
Church  Conventions  of  August,  1783,  and  June,  1784,  by  which 
they  were  counteracted,  says  :* 

The  proceedings  of  these  conventions,  with  measures  taken  at  other 
times  and  in  other  matters  by  the  clergy  of  that  State,  were  chiefly  ori- 
ginated by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  who  in  his  residence  there,  during  the 
seizure  of  the  charter-rights  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  exerted  his 
excellent  talents  in  these  and  in  other  public  works. 

In  every  state  of  life  to  which  God  was  pleased  to  call  him,  he 
learned  not  only  to  be  content,  but  at  once  was  highly  useful. 

We  may  say,  indeed,  with  some  confidence,  that  but  for  the  ac- 
tivity and  executive  powers  of  Dr.  Smith,  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible to  have  got  the  Church  in  the  Southern  States  into  a  right 
condition  for  the  great  work  of  union,  which  through  his,  Bishop 
White's  and  Bishop  Seabury's  united  efforts — and  in  the  face  of 

*  White's  Memoirs,  p.  92.     Second  Edition. 


308  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [l7§2 

some  inexplicable  conduct  of  Bishop  Provoost's,  took  place  in 
1789.* 

It  was  with  feelings  of  a  touching  kind  that  Dr.  Smith  took 
leave  of  his  affectionate  parish  and  devoted  College  at  Chester- 
town.  He  left  the  former  in  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Robinson,  of  Virginia,  as  Rector,  and  the  latter  in  that  of  the 
Rev.  Colin  Ferguson  as  President.  Both  parish  and  college  were 
left  in  good  hands,  but  neither  in  hands  like  those  which  now  sur- 
rendered the  possession. 

I  may  here  perhaps  insert  a  letter  giving  some  facts  in  regard  to 
Washington  College  before  I  finally  take  leave  of  the  subject.  It 
is  from  the  venerable  Peregrine  Wroth,  M.  D.,  a  well-known 
physician  of  Maryland : 

Easton,  Talbot  Co.,  October  23d,  1872. 
Horace  Wemyss  Smith,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir  :  ....  I  send  you  a  view  of  the  old  College,  the  one 
burnt  down  in  1827.  It  was  rebuilt  in  1846  in  three  separate  buildings 
— all  of  which  are  not  equal  in  size  to  the  old  College. 

I  should  not  forget  to  add  that  to  the  back  of  the  common  hall  was 
built  (to  the  old  College)  a  chapel  sixty  feet  square,  joined  to  the  com- 
mon hall  and  to  the  two  wings — the  whole  building  in  front  about  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  from  end  to  end,  and  sixty  feet  wide.  The 
endowment  was  ^1,250  annually.  And  it  was  thus — about  1798-99 — 
the  State  Legislature  took  away  ^750  of  the  fund,  and  in  1800  or  1801 
the  whole  balance,  leaving  us  to  the  tuition  money  of  the  students  as  our 
only  support.  We  at  once  were  obliged  to  dismiss  all  our  Professors  but 
one,  and  when  the  College  was  burnt  we  rented  a  house  in  town  and 
kept  up  the  school  there  in  name,  but  greatly  fallen  off.  When  the  fund 
was  first  lessened  by  our  State  Legislature,  Mr.  Daniel  McCurtin,  Pro- 
fessor of  the  Dead  Languages,  one  day  gave  my  class-,  then  the  head 
class  in  his  department,  a  history  of  the  endowment  of  the  College. 
Before  the  Revolution,  when  Lord  Baltimore  was  Lord  Proprietor,  he 


*  Bishop  Seabury,  with  whom  Dr.  Smith's  relations,  as  we  have  already  said,  were 
then  friendly,  thought,  indeed,  that  in  defining  the  office  and  duties  of  a  Bishop  (see 
supra,  p.  108)  as  St.  Jerom  defined  them,  my  venerable  ancestor  had  rather  too  much 
lowered  them.  But  Dr.  Smith  knew  the  churchmen  of  Maryland  better  than  did  Dr. 
Seabury.  He  raised  them  to  as  high  a  point  as  it  was  at  that  time  possible  to  raise 
them,  and  had  he  attempted  to  force  Dr.  Seabury's  high  views  upon  them,  there  would 
have  been  an  utter  collapse  and  break  down  in  his  beneficent  efforts.  He  laid  a  foun- 
dation strong  enough  for  the  best  superstructure;  one  which  has  sustained  a  church  in 
which  Claggct  and  Kemp  and  Stone  and  Whittingham  have  filled  the  highest 
office. 


I789]  REV.    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  309 

gave  the  Legislature  ,£40,000  on  condition  that  they  would  pay  ,£3,000 
annually  to  two  Colleges — should  such  be  built — one  at  Annapolis,  the 
metropolis  of  the  State,  and  the  other  at  Chestertown,  on  the  eastern 
side  of  Chesapeake  Bay — ^£1.750  to  that  on  the  western  shore  and 
^1,250  to  that  at  Chestertown,  on  the  eastern  shore.  During  the  war 
(of  the  Revolution)  the  money  was.  used  by  the  State,  and  when,  by  the 
great  exertions  of  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  who  travelled  through  the 
whole  eastern  shore  on  horseback  for  that  purpose,  the  necessary  fund  for 
building  the  College  was  raised,  the  Legislature  imposed  a  tax  on 
"  Hawkers  and  Pedlars  and  Marriage  Licenses,"  and  paid  to  Washing- 
ton College  ,£1,250,  founded  in  1782,  and  to  St.  John's  College,  at 
Annapolis,  built  about  1783  or  17S4,  the  annual  sum  of  ,£1,750.  It 
was  made  by  Act  of  Legislature  a  perpetual  endowment  !  How  they 
could  have  a  right  to  take  it  away  afterwards  is  a  question. 

The  above  statement,  spoken  of  afterwards  so  often  by  my  class  and 
others,  was  indelibly  impressed  on  my  mind,  and,  I  believe,  every  word 
of  it.  But  I  confess  that  though  I  made  many  efforts  years  ago  to  verify 
it.  I  have  not  succeeded. 

Before  the  College  was  founded,  Dr.  Smith,  as  you  are  probably 
aware,  was  principal  of  a  large  and  fine  school  in  Chestertown,  and 
Rector  of  the  parish  of  I.  U.,  built  in  1767  in  Kent  county.  The 
church  in  Chestertown,  built  in  1772,  was  then  a  chapel  of  ease.  He 
was  Rector  of  both  when  the  College  was  built.  He  was  elected  Prin- 
cipal, and  continued  so  until  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  about  1790. 
Personally,  of  course,  I  was  unacquainted  with  him,  being  born  in  1 786 ; 
but  I  have  always  heard  him  spoken  of  as  eminent  both  as  a  scholar 
and  as  a  minister  of  the  Church.  The  life-size  portrait,  which  I  had 
taken  from  a  small  engraving,  is  hanging  in  the  Library  at  Washington 
College,  and  when  painted  was  pronounced  by  two  aged  and  intelligent 
ladies  who  remembered  and  admired  him,  as  a  good  likeness. 

Of  course  I  can  know  nothing  personally  of  your  renowned  ancestor. 
I  may  have  seen  him,  for  he  baptized  me  in  1786,  when  I  was  but  a  few 
days  old.  I  was  not  entered  at  Washington  College  (of  which  I  am  an 
Alumnus)  until  1794,  after  your  ancestor  had  been  called  to  Philadelphia, 
and  I  left  college  in  1803,  the  year  of  his  death. 

Please  excuse  this  note.  It  would  not  have  been  written  to  trouble 
you,  but  I  feel  personally  interested  in  the  success  of  your  researches ; 
having  been  educated  at  the  College  he  founded,  since  that  a  visitor  of 
it  and  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  that  institution,  and  feeling  it  is  my 
duty  to  render  any  assistance  I  am  able. 

I  remain  very  respectfully  yours, 

P.  Wroth.* 


*  See  Appendix,  No.  V. 


3IO  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPOXDEiXCE    OF   THE  [1789 

On  the  1st  of  July,  1789,  Dr.  Smith,  with  his  wife  and  children, 
returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  went  to  reside  upon  his  family-seat 
at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill.  And  now — singular  incident — as  the 
village  clock  chimes  the  hour  of  twelve  to  usher  in  the  morn  of 
July  1st,  1879,  I,  his  great-grandson,  am  preparing  upon  the  same 
estate  this  record  for  the  printer;  ninety  years  from  the  time  he 
returned  to  it.  As  I  write,  my  mind  reverts  to  the  closing  para- 
graph of  his  preface  to  the  works  of  Nathaniel  Evans,  which  he 
had  collected  and  published  as  a  labor  of  love.     He  there  says  : 

The  task  he  left  to  be  performed  was  a  mournful  one ;  but  it  has 
been  executed  with  that  fidelity,  which  the  writer  of  this  would  wish 
might  be  extended  to  any  performance  of  his  own,  that  may  be  thought 
worthy  of  the  public  eye,  by  that  true  friend  Into  whose  hands  it  may 
fall,  when  he  himself  shall  be  no  more  !  * 

In  anticipation  of  the  formal  surrender  of  the  College  of  Phila- 
delphia— "My  College "  as  he  rightly  called  it — to  him,  he  pro- 
posed that  the  following  inscription,  which  is  the  same  which 
was  set  in  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  on  the  Restoration,  should  be 
engraved  upon  the  front  of  the  edifice : 

"  DIVINA 

OPE  MISERICORDIA  ET  PROVIDENTIA 

COLLEGIUM  HOC 

A  CAPTIVITATE  QUADAM  BABYLONICA 

EREPTUM 

INTEGRIS   ET   LEGITIMIS   SUIS   MEMBRIS 

CONSTITUITUR." 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Trustees  of  the  College  was  held  at  the 
house  of  Dr.  Franklin,  now  an  aged  man,  upon  notice  given  by 
Dr.  Smith.  There  were  fourteen  Trustees  surviving,  all  of  whom 
were  present: 

Benjamin  Franklin,  LL.  D.,  Dr.  John  Redman, 

Benjamin  Chew,     ~|  John  Laurence,     ~| 

Edward  Shippen,    VEsqs.      «  Thomas  Mifflin,    >  Esqs. 

Thomas  Willing,  J  Samuel  Powel,      J 

*  See  Vol.  I.,  page  481. 


1789]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  311 

Rt.  Rev.  Wm.  White,  D.  D.,     George  Clvmek,         ^ 
Robert  Morris,         \  F  James  Wilson,  VEsqs. 

Francis  Hopkinson,  J       q  '      Alex.  Wilcocks,       j 

The  only  surviving  members  of  the  Faculty  of  Arts  were  Dr. 
Smith,  the  Provost,  and  Mr.  James  Davidson,  Professor  of 
Humanity  and  Latin  and  Greek  Languages. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting,  held  April  28th,  1789,  the  Treasurer, 
Mr.  Bingham,  and  Col.  Miles  were  appointed  a  committee  to  read 
and  report  concerning  the  condition  of  the  Norristown  estate  and 
mills  on  the  Schuylkill,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken.  The 
vacancies,  ten  in  number,  of  Trustees  were  supplied  by  the  choice 
of  the  following  gentlemen: 

Thomas  Fitzsimons,  William  Lewis, 

Henry  Hill,  John  Nixon, 

Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D.,  Robert  Hare, 

Samuel  Miles,  Caspar  Wistar, 

William  Bingham,  Richard  Peters. 

The  committee  made  the  inspection,  and  on  the  28th  of  May 
reported.  They  had  viewed  the  estate,  but  so  unfavorable  was 
their  statement  of  its  condition  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  the 
Trustees  that  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the  institution  to  sell  it 
as  soon  as  possible,  and  to  invest  the  proceeds  thereof  in  ground- 
rents  or  some  other  real  estate  productive  of  a  certain  undimin- 
ished revenue  for  the  support  of  the  institution.  The  committee 
was  continued,  in  order  to  advertise  the  estate  for  sale,  and  to 
report  some  plan  for  selling  it  in  such  manner  as  would  be  agree- 
able to  justice  as  well  respecting  the  then  tenant,  as  the  engage- 
ments of  the  Trustees  to  Dr.  Smith,  at  the  time  of  the  purchase 
of  the  estate  from  him  in  the  autumn  of  1776. 

Under  date  of  the  18th  of  August,  1789  (Dr.  Smith  having 
offered  to  take  so  troublesome  a  burden  from  the  College),  the 
minutes  of  the  Trustees  continue : 

At  a  meeting  held  this  day  it  was  Resolved,  that  ,£4,300  be  the  sum 
demanded  for  the  Norriton  estate,  exclusive  of  the  town;  £1,200  to 
be  paid  on  or  before  the  1st  day  of  April  and  before  the  signing  of  the 
deed,  and  that  the  pre-emption  at  that  price  be  now  offered  to  Dr. 
Smith.  An  offer  was  made  to  Dr.  Smith  at  the  Board,  agreeably  to  the 
above  resolve,  and  the  Doctor  accepted  of  the  same  ;  and  the  security  to 
be  given  for  the  remainder  of  the  payments,  to  be  as  may  be  concluded 


312  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l7§9 

on  by  the  Committee,  viz. :   the  Treasurer,  Col.  Miles,  and  Mr.  Bing- 
ham, formerly  appointed  for  the  advertising  the  estate  for  sale. 

When  the  restitution  of  its  rights  to  the  College  was  made,  the 
Professors  in  the  medical  schools  came  again  to  tiieir  places. 
These  Professors  were  Dr.  William  Shippen,  Jr.,  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Surgery;  Adam  Kuhn,  Professor  of  Botany  and 
Materia  Medica;  and  Benjamin  Rush,  Professor  of  Chemistry. 
Being  waited  upon  by  a  committee  of  the  Trustees,  they  severally 
expressed  their  satisfaction  upon  the  renewal  of  their  connection 
with  the  Trustees  of  the  College,  and  their  restoration  to  their 
Professorships  under  them  in  discharging  their  duties,  of  which, 
as  heretofore,  it  was  their  wish  and  intention  to  continue  :* 

It  was  determined  to  confer  no  longer  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Medicine.  The  reason  for  this  course  was  "that  it  would  not  be 
for  the  honor  of  the  College  or  the  advancement  of  sound  litera- 
ture to  continue  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Medicine,  lest  young 
and  inexperienced  men  under  the  sanction  of  that  degree  and  of 
their  collegiate  education,  assuming  the  name  of  Doctor,  might  be 
tempted  to  impose  upon  the  public,  by  a  too  early  practice.  It  has, 
therefore,  been  determined  that  the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Medicine 
shall  be  the  only  medical  degree  conferred  in  this  seminary." 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1789,  the  following  rules,  of  which 
the  original  manuscript  is  in  Dr.  Smith's  handwriting,  respecting  a 
medical  education,  having  been  passed  by  the  Trustees,  were 
published: 

1.  No  person  shall  be  received  as  a  candidate  for  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor in  Medicine  until  he  has  arrived  to  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and 
has  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  Medicine  in  the  College  for  at  least 
two  years.  Those  students  and  candidates  who  reside  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  or  within  five  miles  thereof  must  have  been  the  pupils  of 
some  respectable  physician  for  the  space  of  three  years,  and  those  who 
may  come  from  the  country  and  from  any  greater  distance  than  five 
miles,  must  have  studied  with  some  reputable  physician  thereof  at  least 
two  years. 

2.  Every  candidate  shall  have  regularly  attended  the  lectures  of  the 
following  Professors,  viz.  :   of  Anatomy  and  Surgery;  of  Chemistry  and 

*  Dr.  John  Morgan,  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic,  was  not  at  the 
time  within  the  State.  The  Trustees  considered  him  reinstated  and  entitled  to 
continue  in  his  office  until  his  return. 


1790]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH%  D.  D.  3 1 3 

the  Institutes  of  Medicine;  of  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacy;  of  the 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine;  the  Botanical  Lectures  of  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Natural  History  and  Botany;  and  a  course  of  Lectures  in 
Natural  and  Experimental  Philosophy. 

3.  Each  candidate  shall  signify  his  intention  of  graduating  to  the 
Dean  of  the  Medical  Faculty  at  least  two  months  before  the  time  of 
graduation;  after  which  he  shall  be  examined  privately  by  the  Profes- 
sors of  the  different  branches  of  Medicine.  If  remitted  to  his  studies, 
the  Professors  shall  hold  themselves  bound  not  to  divulge  the  same ;  but 
if  he  is  judged  to  be  properly  qualified,  a  medical  question  and  case 
shall  then  be  proposed  to  him  ;  the  answer  and  treatment  of  which  he 
shall  submit  to  the  Medical  Professors.  If  these  performances  are  ap- 
proved, the  candidate  shall  then  be  admitted  to  a  public  examination, 
before  the  Trustees,  the  Provost,  Vice-Provost,  Professors  and  students 
of  the  College.  After  which  he  shall  offer  to  the  inspection  of  each  of 
the  Medical  Professors  a  Thesis  written  in  the  Latin  or  English  lan- 
guages (at  his  own  option)  on  any  medical  subject.  This  Thesis,  if  ap- 
proved of,  is  to  be  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  candidate,  and  defended 
from  such  objections  as  may  be  made  to  it  by  the  Medical  Professors,  at 
a  commencement,  to  be  held  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  degrees  in 
Medicine  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  June  every  year. 

Bachelors  in  Medicine  who  wish  to  be  admitted  to  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor in  Medicine,  shall  publish  and  defend  a  Thesis  agreeably  to  the  rules 
above  mentioned. 

The  different  Medical  Lectures  shall  commence  annually  on  the  first 
Monday  in  November,  the  lectures  in  Natural  and  Experimental  Philoso- 
phy about  the  same  time,  and  the  lectures  on  Botany  on  the  first  Monday 
in  April.  Benjamin  Franklin, 

President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
William  Smith, 
Provost  of  the  College  and  Secretary  of  Board  of  Trustees. 

On  the  8th  of  June,  1790,  the  Commencement  in  the  Medical 
Department  of  the  College  took  place.  Dr.  Smith,  not  forgetting 
the  recent  act  of  restoration,  sent  the  following  polite  invitation  to 
His  Excellency  the  President  and  the  Supreme  Executive  Council 
of  Pennsylvania: 

College  of  Philadelphia,  June  7,  1790. 
His  Excellency  the  President  and  Supreme  Executive  Council  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  are  requested  to  honor  the  College  with 
their  company  at  the  Medical  Commencement,  to  be  held  in  the  College 
Hall  to-morrow,  at  10  o'clock  a.  m.  William  Smith, 

Provost  of  the  College. 


314  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_x79° 

On  the  17th  of  July  the  Public  Commencement  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Arts  took  place,  and  Dr.  Smith  sent  the  following : 

College  of  Pennsylvania  lo  Ihe  Supreme  Executive  Council  of 

Pennsylvania. 

College  of  Philadelphia,  July  15,  1790. 
The  Trustees  and  Faculty  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  request  to 
be  honored  with  the  company  of  his  Excellency  the  President  and  Su- 
preme Executive  Council,  at  a  Commencement  to  be  held  in  the  College 
Hall  on  Saturday  morning  next,  at  9  o'clock. 

William  Smith,  Provost,  etc. 

The  graduates  in  the  Department  of  Arts  were  Robert  Andrews, 
Gerardus  M.  Clarkson,  James  Coxe,  of  Sunbury,  Henry  Hutchins, 
William  T.  Meredith,  William  Wilson,  and  Benjamin  Wood. 

But  while  in  one  sense  the  triumph  of  Dr.  Smith  was  complete 
with  the  restoration  ot  the  college  charter,  in  all  others,  that  is  to 
say,  in  a  practical  and  pecuniary  sense,  the  victory  was  a  barren 
one.*     By  the  long  cessation  of  its  name  and  proper  functions, 

*  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Dr.  Smith  himself  considered  his  triumph  a  "  barren 
one."  On  the  contrary,  he  looked  upon  the  day  of  his  victory  as  the  proudest  day  of 
his  life.  He  tells  the  following  curious  story,  which  he  found  in  "  Percy's  Anecdotes," 
to  illustrate  the  fate  of  political  persecutors,  and  applies  it  to  his  own  case. 

"  Lord  Carnarvon  in  Charles  Second's  time  is  said  to  have  never  spoken  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  but  being  heated  by  wine  in  the  company  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and 
excited  by  him  not  to  remain  always  a  dumb  Lord,  he  was  provoked  to  declare  before 
he  went  up  to  the  House,  that  he  would  speak  on  any  subject  that  should  offer.  The 
subject  happened  to  be  the  prosecution  of  the  Lord  High  Treasurer  Danby.  Accord- 
ingly, Lord  Carnarvon  stood  up  and  delivered  himself  thus — '  My  Lords  !  1  understand 
but  little  of  Latin,  but  a  good  deal  of  English,  and  not  a  little  of  English  history,  from 
which  I  have  learned  the  mischiefs  of  such  kinds  of  prosecutions  as  this,  and  the  ill 
fate  of  the  prosecutors.  I  could  bring  many  instances,  and  those  very  ancient,  but  I 
will  go  no  farther  hack  than  the  latter  end  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign.  At  that  time 
the  Earl  of  Essex  was  run  down  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  your  Lordships  know  very 
well  what  became  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  My  Lord  Bacon,  he  run  down  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  and  your  Lordships  know  what  became  of  my  Lord  Bacon.  The  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  he  run  down  my  Lord  Bacon,  and  your  Lordships  know  what  happened 
to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham.  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  afterwards  Earl  of  Strafford, 
he  run  down  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  you  all  know  what  became  of  him.  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  he  run  down  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  and  your  Lordships  know  what  be- 
came of  Sir  Harry  Vane.  Chancellor  Hyde,  he  run  down  Sir  Harry  Vane,  and  your 
Lordships  know  what  became  of  the  Chancellor.  Sir  Thomas  Osbourn,  now  Earl  of 
Danby,  run  down  Chancellor  Hyde,  but  what  will  become  of  the  Earl  of  Danby  your 
Lordships  best  can  tell.  But  let  me  see  the  man  that  dare  run  down  the  Earl  of  Danby, 
and  we  shall  soon  see  what  will  become  of  him.' 

"  This  speech,  being  pronounced  in  an  extraordinary  tone  and  manner,  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  both  surprised  and  disappointed,  cried  out:  'The  man  is  inspired,  and 
Claret  has  done  the  business ! '  " 


1790] 


KEi:    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D. 


315 


the  college  had  been  injured  past  power  of  any  Restoring  or  Re- 
pealing Act  to  remedy'.  The  University  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  still  in  existence;  a  concurrent,  indeed,  a  rival  institu- 
tion. Both  could  not  survive — that  much  was  plain.  It  was 
doubtful  if  even  one  could  live.  An  union  was  agreed  on.  A 
new  Board  of  Trustees — one-half  from  the  Board  of  each  institu- 
tion; and  so  in  1791  the  union  was  effected,  Dr.  Smith  drawing 
with  his  own  hand  the  charter  by  which  they  were  to  be  consoli- 
dated. 

The  Trustees  were  these  : 


FROM    THE    COLLEGE. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Wm.  White,  D.  D., 

The  Rev.  R.  Blackwell,  D.  D., 

Edward  Shippen, 

William  Lewis, 

Robert  Hare, 

Samuel  Powell, 

David  H.  Conyngham, 

William  Bingham, 

Thomas  Fitzsimons, 

George  Clymer, 

Edward  Burd, 

Samuel  Miles. 


FROM   THE    UNIVERSITY. 

Thomas  McKean, 

Charles  Pettit, 

James  Spraat, 

Frederick  Kuhl, 

John  Bleakly, 

John  Carson, 

Jonathan  Bayard  Smith, 

David  Rittcnhouse, 

Jonathan  Dickinson  Sergeant, 

David  Jackson, 

James  Irwin, 

Jared  Ingersoll. 


The  new  institution  was  called  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
I  do  not  know  that  Dr.  Smith  desired  the  Provostship  of  it.  The 
new  institution  bore  plainly  within  it  the  seeds  of  weakness  and 
long-continuing  inefficiency.  With  every  effort  to  make  homo- 
geneity in  the  Board  there  was  none;  as  any  one  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  families  and  men  in  old  Philadelphia  will  see  as  he 
compares  the  columns  above  given.  In  the  column  from  the  Col- 
lege he  sees  the  old  aristocracy  of  the  province  and  the  old 
Church  of  England,  in  the  other  Presbyterianism  and  the  Revolu- 
tion— with  some  exceptions,  the  Democratic  side  of  both.  More 
than  all,  a  long  and  bitter  conflict  had  been  endured,  and 

"  Never  could  true  reconcilement  grow 

Where  wounds  of  deadly  hate  had  pierced  so  deep." 

Whether  Dr.  Smith  would  have  accepted  the  Provostship  or  not, 
Dr.  Ewing  was  elected  to  it.     The  connection  of  the  former  with 


3l6  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  Ll79° 

the  principal  seat  of  learning  in  Pennsylvania  thus  ceased;  it  having 
continued  for  nearly  thirty-seven  years.  The  Provost  Stille  remarks, 
in  speaking  of  the  University: 

'•'What  he  made  it  I  have  endeavored  to  show;  to  what  reputation 
and  influence  it  might  have  reached  had  he  heen  permitted  to  remain 
in  charge  of  it,  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  say.  My  own  conviction 
is  that  the  University  is  suffering  to  //lis  day  from  ihe  ill  effects  of  his  un- 
timely removal.  And  certainly  no  one  can  doubt  that  had  we  now  at  its 
head  a  man  with  something  of  his  broad  and  generous  culture,  of  his 
wonderful  capacity  for  organization,  of  his  indomitable  energy,  of  his 
large  public  spirit,  of  his  perfect  faith  in  the  future  of  his  College,  and 
of  his  zealous  devotion  in  advancing  its  interests — the  University  would 
soon  become  what  its  prototype  was  before  the  Revolution — inter  ignes 
Luna  minores. 

"  That  he  made  some  mistakes  and  many  enemies  in  the  methods  he 
adopted  for  doing  his  share  in  this  great  work,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
In  all  his  schemes  he  was  thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  believed  that  he 
always  saw  clearly  the  end  from  the  beginning.  Hence  he  became,  as 
all  earnest  men  are  apt  to  become,  self-willed  and  impatient  of  opposi- 
tion. Such  men  are  not  conciliatory,  and,  therefore,  are  often  unpopu- 
lar ;  but  we  must  remember  that  the  real  work  of  the  world  is  after  all 
mostly  done  by  them.  Dr.  Smith's  prodigious  energy  and  his  large  and 
liberal  spirit  secured  the  confidence  of  the  best  men  of  his  time,  and 
made  him  their  natural  leader.  No  better  proof  can  be  given  of  this 
than  the  uniform  support  and  sympathy  he  received  from  the  Trustees 
of  the  College  through  all  the  stormy  scenes  of  his  career.  They  felt, 
no  doubt,  that  they  had  to  do  with  a  live  man,  who,  whatever  might  be 
his  errors,  had  his  whole  heart  in  the  work  before  him,  and  hence  their 
trust  in  him  never  wavered." 

Again  the  Provost  says: 

"Towards  his  enemies,  Dr.  Smith  was  unsparing,  but  as  far  as  I  can 
see,  never  vindictive.  He  assailed  those  who  stood  in  his  way,  not  to 
secure  a  mere  personal  triumph,  or  to  gratify  a  desire  for  revenge,  but 
because  he  saw  in  them  a  malignant  force  striving  to  ruin  some  great 
public  interest,  the  success  of  which  he  had  at  heart.  When  fully 
roused  he  was  a  most  dangerous  adversary.  He  forgot  himself  in  the 
cause  with  which  he  was  identified,  and  he  never  hesitated  to  forsake 
his  best  friends  if  he  found  them  engaged  on  what  he  considered  the 
wrong  side.  He  was  a  man  of  singularly  frank  and  open  temper,  with- 
out any  disguise  as  to  his  opinions,  and  too  fearless  to  think  of  the  per- 
sonal consequences  of  any  line  of  conduct  which  he  thought  it  his  duty 
to  follow.     It  is  easy  to  discover  the  failings  of  such  men,  but  it  is  not 


I790]  REV<    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  317 

so  easy  to  find  the  grand  qualities  which  were  associated  with  them,  and 
which  in  any  fair  estimate  of  his  character  should  make  us  forget  them." 

It  gave  Dr.  Smith  no  pleasure  to  observe,  nor  docs  it  give  me 
any  to  record,  that  the  union  of  the  two  institutions  produced 
under  Dr.  Smith's  successor  no  good  effect.  The  University  lan- 
guished.    Its  graduates  in  different  years  are  numbered  thus: 


In  1794 —5 

"   1797 3 

"   1801 5 

"   1802 5 


In  1803 6 

"  1826 8 

"  1830 7 


In  1830,  therefore,  the  University  had  one  single  graduate  more 
than  the  old  College  under  Dr.  Smith  had  at  its  first  Commence- 
ment in  1757;  while  in  1794,  1797,  1800,  1802  and  1803  it  never 
had  as  many;  and  in  1797,  and  at  a  date  when  Philadelphia  was 
the  national  metropolis,  but  half  as  many.  And  what  sort  of  men 
sent  it  forth  at  its  first  Commencement  in  1757?  Here  are  their 
names : 

Jacob  Duche,  Samuel  Magaw, 

Francis  Hopkinson,  John  Morgan,  M.  D., 

James  Latta,  Hugh  Williamson, 

Paul  Jackson. 

Of  these  seven  graduates  there  was  not  a  single  one  who  did 
not  become  eminent  either  in  the  State,  in  the  Church,  in  science, 
or  in  letters. 

The  Provost  Stille  rightly  says  in  the  paragraphs  above  quoted 
the  University  was  suffering  from  the  loss  of  Dr.  Smith's  services 
to  it  up  to  the  time  at  which  he  himself  was  writing;  that  is  to  say 
up  to  the  year  1875 — yet  it  always  had  for  Provosts  men  of  ability. 
Dr.  Ewing  himself  was  this.  Dr.  John  McDowell  was  the  same. 
In  Dr.  Frederick  Beasly,  the  institution  had  an  acute  thinker  and 
a  finished  scholar  and  a  writer  much  above  the  common.  In 
Bishop  DeLancey  one  of  the  most  able,  elegant,  dignified,  thought- 
ful and  accomplished  gentlemen  that  our  country,  and  I  may  say 
that  any  country,  ever  has  produced.  And  the  praises  of  the  re- 
spected Ludlow  are  yet  in  the  mouths  of  many.  The  rest  of  the 
Faculty  has  been  worthy  of  their  Provosts;  an  assertion  which  is 
proved  enough  to  all  when  I  say  that  among  this  rest  have  been 


3*8  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Vl79° 

James  Davidson,  Robert  Patterson,  Robert  Walsh,  Charles  Willing 
Hare,  Thomas  Say,  Robert  Adrain,  Samuel  B.  Wylie,  the  Rev. 
Edward  Rutledge,  the  Rev.  Christian  Cruse,  Henry  D.  Rogers, 
Henry  Vethake,  the  Rev.  Roswell  Park,  Alexander  Dallas  Bache, 
Henry  Reed,  and  many  others  of  hardly  less  if  of  any  less  abilities 
at  all. 

The  Board  of  Trustees  has  ever  comprised  men  of  the  first  im- 
portance in  this  great  city.  Yet  till  the  day  of  the  Provost  Stille 
himself  the  College  has  ever  languished.  It  is  only  in  his  day,  by 
the  curing  efforts  of  that  great  physician  Time,  and  by  Dr.  Stille's 
own  ever-active,  well-directed,  and  most  efficient  labors — the  devo- 
tion, the  consecration  I  might  even  say — for  he  has  made  it  a  high 
and  religious  work — the  consecration  of  all  his  best  years  to  it — 
that  the  College  is  now,  in  1880,  beginning  to  be  worthy  of  what 
it  was  when  Dr.  William  Smith  left  it.  William  Smith  was  the 
Fundator,  Charles  J.  Stille  is  the  Restitutor.  Each  as  much  as  the 
other  has  been  a  Conditor.  The  institution  with  such  a  Provost 
and  with  a  Faculty  like  that  now  there,  thank  God,  exalts  its 
towery  head.* 

Notwithstanding  that  Philadelphia  was  now  the  Capital  of  the 
nation  and  that  its  Congress  and  pulpits  were  filled  with  eloquent 
men  from  every  State  in  the  new  Union,  Dr.  Smith  was  still  the 
favorite  orator  of  the  time,  especially  in  the  eloquence  of  the  pul- 
pit. The  4th  of  July,  1790 — the  second  "Fourth"  since  the  opera- 
tion of  the  Constitution — fell  on  Sunday.  Accordingly,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  standing  committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society 
of  the  Cincinnati,  held  at  the  house  of  General  Walter  Stewart, 
June  28th,  1790,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  as  the  Fourth  of  July  would  be  on  Sunday  next,  a  ser- 
mon be  delivered  in  celebration  of  American  Independence  in  lieu 
of  an  oration  ;  and  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  Trovost  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  be  requested  to  prepare  and  deliver  one  before 
the  Society  on  said  day. 

*It  is  with  sincere  regret  and  with  great  anxiety  for  the  future  welfare  of  the  Col- 
lege that  just  after  writing  these  lines,  I  learn  that  there  is  a  probability  that  Dr.  Stille 
— worn  down,  as  it  is  stated,  by  his  unintermitted  and  great  labors,  and  wishing  to  re- 
fresh himself  with  European  travel — desires  to  be  relieved  from  his  Provostship.  The 
loss  of  such  a  man  will  not,  at  this  moment,  be  easily  supplied. 


I790]  ^ET.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  319 

General  Stewart*  and  Colonel  Francis  Johnston  were  appointed 
to  wait  on  Dr.  Smith  for  this  purpose. 

Though  the  notice  was  a  little  short,  Dr.  Smith,  who  was  nuii- 
quam  non  paratus,  and  ever  ready  to  oblige,  preached  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  before  the  Society  agreeably  to  their  request. 
The  subject  of  his  discourse  was  "  Temporal  and  Spiritual  Salva- 
tion," from  the  text  from  Isaiah  iii.  12. 

The  thanks  of  the  Society  were  afterwards  given  to  him,  through 
Governor  McKcan,  General  Walter  Stewart  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Rogers,  who  obtained  from  him  his  manuscript  of  the  sermon,  in 
order  to  have  it  printed. 

This  sermon  (published  in  Maxwell's  edition  of  Dr.  Smith's 
Works)  is  a  fine  sample  of  his  abilities.  Parts  of  it  have  fre- 
quently attracted  attention.  I  do  not  recall  the  name  of  any  man 
who  seems  to  me  to  have  beheld  in  truer  vision,  though  the 
vision  then,  of  prophecy — the  expansion  over  this  continent  of  the 
glories  of  civilization,  religion  and  learning.  What  a  remarkable 
passage,  for  example,  to  have  been  written  a.  d.  1790,  two  years 
or  less  after  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  is  this!  We 
have  quoted  it  once  already,  in  another  place.  It  will  bear  a  repe- 
tition in  this  for  a  different  purpose : 

Transported  at  the  thought,  I  am  borne  forward  to  days  of  distant  re- 
nown !  In  my  expanded  view  these  United  States  rise,  in  all  their 
ripened  glory,  before  me.  I  look  through,  and  beyond,  every  yet  peo- 
pled region  of  the  New  World,  and  behold  period  still  brightening  upon 
period.     Where  one  continuous  depth  of  gloomy  wilderness  now  shuts 

*  General  Walter  Stewart  died  in  1796.  He  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  and  was  born 
in  Londonderry.  He  came  to  America  while  young,  and  was  earnest  in  the  American 
cause.  He  was  appointed  a  captain  in  one  of  the  four  battalions  of  Pennsylvania 
troops  for  the  Continental  service,  January  5th,  1776.  He  became  colonel  of  the  Thir- 
teenth Pennsylvania  Battalion,  and  served  during  the  greater  part  of  the  war.  The 
Thirteenth  was  afterward  consolidated  with  the  Second,  and  Colonel  Stewart  remained 
in  command  of  the  organization  under  the  latter  title.  After  the  Revolution  he  resided 
in  Philadelphia,  and  lived  in  ease  on  the  north  side  of  High  street,  between  Fifth  and 
Sixth  streets — nearly  opposite  the  house  occupied  during  the  time  that  the  Government 
was  in  Philadelphia  by  President  Washington.  He  married  Deborah,  the  daughter  of 
Blair  McClenachan — a  beautiful  woman,  and  a  leader  of  society.  He  succeeded  Major 
General  James  Irvine  as  Major-General  of  the  First  Division  at  Philadelphia  in  1794, 
and  had  command  in  the  city  and  county  during  the  absence  of  Governor  Mifflin  witli 
the  regular  troops  during  the  Whiskey  war.  General  Stewart  was  reputed  to  be  one  of 
the  handsomest  men  of  his  day.  He  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  General  Washington  in 
a  marked  decree. 


320  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \_l79Q 

out  even  the  beams  of  day,  I  see  new  States  and  empires,  new  seats  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge,  new  religious  domes  spreading  around.  In 
places  now  untrod  by  any  but  savage  beasts,  or  men  as  savage  as  they, 
I  hear  the  voice  of  happy  labor,  and  behold  towery  cities  growing  into 
the  skies ! 

The  general  sentiments  in  this  address  Dr.  Smith  tells  us  in  a 
note  to  the  address,  had  been  published  by  him  in  a  poem  near 
fifty  years  before,  and  had  been  occasionally  introduced  into  former 
public  addresses  by  him,  but  had  not  before  been  published  at 
large  or  in  the  present  form. 

After  the  passage  above  quoted,  Dr.  Smith  concludes  his  sermon 
as  follows: 

Lo  !  in  this  happy  picture,  I  behold  the  native  Indian  exulting  in  the 
works  of  peace  and  civilization  !  His  bloody  hatchet  he  buries  deep 
under  ground,  and  his  murderous  knife  he  turns  into  a  pruning  hook,  to 
lop  the  tender  vine  and  teach  the  luxuriant  shoot  to  grow.  No  more 
does  he  form  to  himself  a  heaven  after  death  (according  to  the  poet) 
in  company  with  his  faithful  dog,  behind  the  cloud-topped  hill,  to  enjoy 
solitary  quiet,  far  from  the  haunts  of  faithless  men  ;  but,  better  instructed 
by  Christianity,  he  views  his  everlasting  inheritance,  a  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

Instead  of  recounting  to  his  offspring,  round  the  blazing  fire,  the 
bloody  exploits  of  their  ancestors,  and  wars  of  savage  death,  showing 
barbarous  exultation  over  every  deed  of  woe  ;  methinks  I  hear  him  pour- 
ing forth  his  eulogies  of  praise  to  the  memory  of  those  who  were  the 
instruments  of  heaven  in  raising  his  tribes  from  darkness  to  light ;  in 
giving  them  freedom  and  civilization,  and  converting  them  from  violence 
and  blood  to  meekness  and  love  ! 

Amongst  those  who  shall  be  celebrated  as  the  instruments  of  this  great 
work,  I  hear  the  names  of  every  good  citizen  and  Christian  who  is  a 
friend  to  mankind,  and  to  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  especially, 
methinks,  I  hear  your  names,  ye  illustrious  patriots  !  who,  having  asserted 
your  own  and  your  country's  rights,  cheerfully  join  in  every  laudable 
endeavor  for  conveying  those  rights  to  posterity,  and  bringing  "the 
utmost  ends  of  the  earth  to  see  the  salvation  of  our  God." 

Hasten,  O  Almighty  Father,  hasten  this  blessed  period  of  thy  Son's 
kingdom,  which  we  believe  shall  come;  and  the  praise  and  glory  shall 
be  to  thy  name,  forever  and  ever  !     Amen. 

We  come  now  to  a  highly  interesting  event  in  Dr.  Smith's 
domestic  history:  the  engagement  of  marriage  between  his  son 
Charles  with  Mary,  the  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  a  lady 
of  education,   intelligence    and   amiable    disposition.     The    letter 


I/90]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  32  I 

which  follows  is  a  pleasing  illustration  of  Dr.  Smith's  courtly 
manners,  and  is  a  tribute  to  his  son  Charles'  good  conduct,  of  which 
that  son  may  have  well  been  proud : 

Dr.  Smith  to  Jasper  Yeates. 

Philadelphia,  September  3,  1790. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  On  my  return  from  Lancaster  to  Philadelphia  my  son 
Charles  informed  his  mother  and  me  that,  having  been  successful  in  his 
addresses  to  your  amiable  daughter,  and  farther  happy  in  obtaining 
yours  and  Mrs.  Yeates's  consent  to  their  being  united  in  wedlock  at 
some  convenient  time,  which  he  hoped  might  not  be  very  remote,  it 
was  his  wish  that  his  mother  and  myself  might  assure  you  of  our  appro- 
bation, as  we  now  readily  do,  and  also  of  our  desire  to  contribute  all  in  our 
power  to  render  the  young  couple  permanently  happy.  I  wish  that 
Charles  could  have  so  far  overcome  his  bashfulness  as  to  have  communi- 
cated himself  to  me  on  the  Saturday  evening  after  I  was  in  company  with 
you.  I  should  certainly,  in  that  case,  have  waited  on  you  according  to 
your  invitation  to  breakfast  on  Sunday  morning,  when  a  i'vw  moments 
conversation  on  this  business  would  have  been  better  between  us  than  any- 
thing by  way  of  letter  ;  and  it  may  seem  disrespectful  to  your  family  that 
on  a  supposition  of  my  being  acquainted  with  the  matter,  I  should  leave 
Lancaster  without  waiting  upon  you  to  express  the  sense  I  have,  not  only 
of  your  former  partiality  to  my  son,  and  the  advice  and  protection  with 
which  you  favored  him  from  his  first  appearance  at  the  Bar,  but  espe- 
cially this  last  instance  of  your  favor  to  him  ;  a  greater  than  which  you 
have  it  not  in  your  power  to  give.  And  I  trust  that  such  is  his  sensi- 
bility, and  such  will  be  his  gratitude  and  returns  of  duty  to  you  as  well  as 
of  tender  affection  for  your  daughter,  that  you  will  never  have  cause  to  re- 
pent of  your  good  offices  and  predilection  forjiim.  As  for  myself,  I 
can  only  add  that  he  is  justly  a  favorite  son,  and  has  never  in  his  life,  by 
any  part  of  his  conduct,  given  me  cause  of  pain,  but  always  of  much 
pleasure,  and  in  no  part  of  it  more  than  on  the  present  occasion  of  his 
attachment  to  a  young  lady  of  such  amiable  manners  and  good  educa- 
tion, who  is  willing  and  happily  qualified  to  accommodate  herself  to  his 
situation  either  in  a  village  or  a  city,  a  farm-house  or  a  mansion,  as 
future  circumstances  may  require.  I  have  done  what  my  present  situa- 
tion will  allow  to  add  to  his  independence.  If  nothing  adverse  happens, 
he  will  have  something  further  to  expect  upon  the  death  of  his  mother 
and  myself. 

I  have  enclosed  the  Cincinnati  sermon  which  you  wished  to  see,  and 
as  a  token  of  my  affection,  have  inscribed  it  with  your  daughter's  name. 

I  am  with  great  regard  and  esteem, 

Your  most  obedient  humble  servant,  William  Smith. 

To  Jaspiir  Yeates,  Esq.,  Lancaster. 
21 


322  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [_l79l 

But  these  domestic  events  were  not  always  events  of  joy.  Dark 
clouds  follow  bright  sunshine.  On  the  19th  of  December  in  this 
same  year  Dr.  Smith  was  called  on  to  mourn  the  loss  of  his  eldest 
and  much  loved  daughter  Williamina,  wife  of  Charles  Goldsbor- 
ough,  Esq.  The  following  inscription — upon  a  handsomely  carved 
tombstone  in  the  church-yard  at  Cambridge,  Md. — is  no  doubt  from 
the  pen  of  Dr.  Smith  himself: 

In  Memory  of 

Mrs.  Williamina  Goldsborough, 

Wife  of  Charles  Goldsborough,  Esq., 

Of  Dorset  County,  Maryland, 

Daughter  of  Dr.  William  Smith  of 

Philadelphia,   and   Rebecca,   his  wife. 

She  died  December  19th,  1790, 

Aged  28  years. 

Call'd  from  this  mortal  scene  in  bloom  of  life, 
Here  lies  a  much  lov'd  daughter,  mother,  wife, 
To  whom  each  grace  and  excellence  were  given, 
A  saint  on  earth,  an  angel  now  in  heaven. 
Bereaved  parents  come  to  speak  their  woe  ; 
To  grave  it  deep  on  monumental  stone, 
And  with  a  husband's  sorrows  mix  their  own — 
But  ah  !   no  further  trace  this  tablet  bears, 
Line  after  line  is  blotted  with  their  tears. 

Her  mournful  parents  inscribe  this  tablet. 

The  poet  Pope  has  given  us  many  poetical  epitaphs,  some  of 
which  have  been  long* admired  of  scholars.  I  recall  none  more 
graceful  and  pathetic  than  this  which  an  aged  father  puts  upon  his 
daughter's  tomb.  The  two  letters  which  follow  are  in  proper 
sequence  to  the  sad  events  which  we  have  been  commemorating : 

Dr.  Smith  to  Charles  Goldsborough. 

Philadelphia,  January  17,  1791. 

My  Dear  Distressed  Sir  :  How  shall  I  take  my  pen  in  hand  to  write 
to  you  ?  For  many  days  past,  although  urged  by  every  tie  of  affection, 
and  solicited  by  your  mother  at  every  interval  of  her  deep  affliction  to 
write  to  you,  yet  I  attempted  it  in  vain.  Inconsolable  myself,  un- 
manned, and  I  fear  almost  unchristianed,  with  the  mother,  sister  and 
brothers  of  the  angel  we  have  lost,  all  in  the  like  condition  around  me, 
what  consolation  could  I  impart  to  you  ?     Yet  still  there  is  consolation, 


I791]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  323 

not  only  in  Christianity,  but  in  the  reason  and  nature  of  things.  She 
who  was  laving  to  all,  and  by  all  beloved,  is  now  a  saint  in  the  bosom  of 
everlasting  love  !  She  whose  delight  was  to  make  others  happy,  is  gone 
where  universal  happiness  prevails  ! 

Let  her  precious  memory  be  your  consolation,  and  let  it  be  preserved 
in  those  clear  pledges — those  sweet  infant  images  of  herself,  whom  she 
hath  left  behind  !  While  you  behold  them,  you  never  can  forget  her; 
and,  I  trust,  will  even  exert  yourself  to  supply,  as  far  as  in  your  power, 
the  irreparable  loss  which  their  education  will  sustain  by  the  loss  of  her. 
Your  endeavors  will  be  assisted  by  your  mother  and  myself  during  the 
short  remainder  of  your  lives,  and  therefore  we  wish  to  see  and  consult 
with  you  in  Philadelphia  as  soon  as  your  health  and  the  situation  of  your 
family  will  admit.  In  the  meantime  we  are  persuaded  that  your  good 
Aunt  Ennalls  will  not  be  wanting  in  her  best  advice  to  you,  and  kind 
offices  to  the  children,  and  especially  the  dear  orphan  last  born.  The 
many  kindnesses  of  Mrs.  Ennalls  to  our  dear  departed  child,  will  never 
be  forgotten  by  us.  We  acknowledge  them  with  the  sincerest  gratitude, 
and  those  of  Mrs.  Caroline  Goldsborough.  In  token  thereof,  please 
communicate  them  this  letter,  and  particularly  to  your  aunt,  to  whom  I 
hope  to  write  a  few  lines  by  your  brother  Richard. 

Your  mother  is  now  able  to  sit  up  for  part  of  the  day,  but  I  fear  will 
never  recover  from  the  severe  visitation  she  has  sustained,  but  will  go 
"  mourning  all  the  days  of  her  life,"  even  if  longer  than  we  can  in  any 
degree  hope.     I  am  sincerely  and  affectionately  yours,  etc. 

William  Smith. 
Mr.  Charles  Goldsborough, 
Honies  Point, 

Dorset  County,  Maryland. 

Dr.  Smith  to  Henry  Ennalls,  Esq. 

Philadelphia,  November  14th,  1791. 
Dear  Sir  :  The  bearer,  Mr.  Davidson,  I  have  engaged  to  go  to  Cam- 
bridge as  a  tutor  to  my  two  grandsons,  children  of  Mr.  Charles  Golds- 
borough. I  beg  your  notice  of  him  so  far  as  to  put  him  in  the  way  of 
getting  across  the  Bay  to  Cambridge  as  soon  and  with  as  little  expense 
as  possible.  The  Cambridge  packet,  if  in  the  way,  will  be  his  best  con- 
veyance. Your  kind  services  to  him  will  oblige  Mr.  Goldsborough  and 
Your  most  obedient  servant,  William  Smith. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1 79 1,  Dr.  Smith's  son  Charles,  of  whose 
engagement  of  marriage  with  Miss  Mary  Yeates,  daughter  of  the 
Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  of  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  we  have  spoken, 
was  married.  The  ceremony  was  performed  at  the  house  of  the 
lady's  father  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Muhlenberg.     The  following  ex- 


324  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [179O 

tract  from  the  Yeates  family  Bible  may  not  be  without  interest  in 
connection  with  this  event : 

Jasper  Yeates,  son  of  John  and  Elizabeth  Yeates,  born  April,  1745; 
died  March  14th,  1817. 

Sarah  Burd,  daughter  of  James  and  Sarah  Burd,  born  January  1st, 
1749;  died  October  25th,  1829. 

The  above  were  married  December  30th,  1767. 

Issue:  Alary  Yeates,  born  at  Lancaster,  March  13th,  1771:  died 
August  27th,  1836. 

John  Yeates,  born  June  29th,  1772;   died  January  7th,  1844. 

Elizabeth  Yeates,  born  April  4th,  1778;   died  August  3d,  1S67. 

Margaret  Yeates,  born  April  24th,  1780;  died  February  1st,  1855. 

Catharine  Yeates,  born  December  1st,  1783;  died  June  7th,  1866. 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

Death  of  Franklin — Impromptu  thereon  at  a  Dinner  Party  by  Dr.  Smith — 
Capped  by  Mr.  Thomas  Willing — Franklin's  Funeral — Dr.  Smith  to 
Dr.  West — The  Same  to  the  Same — Dr.  Smith's  Eulogy  on  Franklin 
— Uni;  Anecdote  de  Famille — Dr.  Odel's  Verses  on  the  Franklin  Stove 
— Franklin  a  Natural  Philosopher  and  not  a  Statesman. 

Ox  Saturday,  April  17th,  1790,  died,  in  the  88th  year  of  his 
age,  the  philosopher,  Benjamin  Franklin.  On  the  evening  of 
his  death  a  company  of  gentlemen  were  seated  at  the  dinner 
table  of  Governor  Mifflin,  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill.  It  con- 
sisted of  Thomas  McKean,  Henry  Hill  (a  private  gentleman  of 
rank  in  old  Philadelphia),  the  Hon.  Thomas  Willing,*  David  Rit- 
tenhouse,  and  Dr.  Smith.  During  the  dinner  a  great  thunder- 
storm arose,  and  Primus,  a  favorite  negro  bodv-servant  of  Dr.  Smith 
brought  to  Governor  Mifflin's  house  the  news  just  received  from 
the  city  at  Dr.  Smith's  of  the  event.  Dr.  Smith,  under  the  impulse 
of  the  moment,  wrote  the  following  lines  without  leaving  the 
table : 

Cease !   cease,  ye  clouds,  your  elemental  strife, 
Why  rage  ye  thus,  as  if  to  threaten  life? 
Seek,  seek  no  more  to  shake  our  souls  with  dread, 
What  busy  mortal  told  you  "  Franklin's  dead?" 
What,  though  he  yields  at  Jove's  imperious  nod, 
With  Rittenhouse  he  left  his  magic  rod. 

*For  some  notice  of  this  eminent  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  see  Appendix  No,  VI. 


1 790]  A'£J'.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  325 

Mr.  Willing,  not  to  be  outdone  by  Dr.  Smith,  immediately  wrote 
the  following : 

What  means  that  flash,  the  thunder's  awful  roar — 
The  blazing  sky — unseen,  unheard  before  ? 
Sage  Smith  replies,  "Our  Franklin  is  no  more." 
The  clouds,  long  subject  to  his  magic  chain, 
Exulting  now  their  liberty  regain. 

On  Wednesday,  the  21st  of  April,  Dr.  Franklin's  remains  were 
interred  in  Christ  Church  burying-ground,  at  the  corner  of  Arch 
and  Fifth  streets.  The  funeral  procession  was  large,  and  the 
streets  through  which  it  passed  were  crowded  with  a  concourse  of 
spectators,  the  number  of  whom  were  computed  at  twenty  thou- 
sand. The  mourners  were  preceded  by  all  the  clergy  of  the  city, 
including  the  readers  of  the  Hebrew  congregation.  The  corpse 
was  carried  by  citizens.  The  pall  was  borne  by  Governor  Thomas 
Mifflin,  Chief-Justice  McKean,  Thomas  Willing,  president  of  the 
Bank  of  North  America,  Samuel  Powell,  the  mayor  of  the  city, 
William  Bingham  and  David  Rittenhouse.  Bells  were  tolled  and 
minute  guns  were  fired  during  the  time  that  the  procession  was 
passing.  In  the  line  of  the  procession  were  the  Supreme  Execu- 
tive Council,  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State,  the  Judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  members  of  the  bar,  the  corporation  of  the 
city,  the  printers  of  the  city,  with  their  journeymen  and  appren- 
tices, the  Philosophical  Society,  the  College  of  Physicians,  the 
Faculty  and  students  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  and  various 
other  societies,  besides  a  numerous  and  respectable  body  of 
citizens.* 


*The  following  bills  for  the  funeral  charges  of  Franklin's  burial,  which  have  been 
preserved  by  his  family,  may  interest  the  reader.  Dolby  was  the  sexton  of  "  the  United 
Churches" — Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's. 

April  21st,  1790. 

The  estate  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Franklin  to  Jos.  Dolby,  for  his  burial : 

To  ground £0  15       o 

To  pall I  o       o 

To  minister's  attendance O  6       o 

To  clerk's  ditto O  4       O 

To  muffling  the  bells 4  10       o 

To  invitations 3  7       6 

To  grave o  10       o 

£\Q  12         6 


326  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  \j-79& 

The  American  Philosophical  Society  determined  that  one  of 
their  members  should  prepare  and  pronounce  an  oration  com- 
memorative of  the  character  and  virtues  of  their  late  worthy 
president.     Dr.  Smith  was  appointed  to  this  office. 

We  now  give  two  letters  indicative  of  Dr.  Smith's  still  continu- 
ing active  discharge  of  the  details  of  business,  notwithstanding 
that  years  were  beginning  to  come  heavily  on  him. 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West. 

Philadelphia,  April  5,  1790. 

Dear  Sir  :  By  Mr.  Levering,  who  takes  this  letter  to  you,  you  will 
receive  the  fifty  copies  of  the  Journal  of  Convention  for  the  Western 
Shore,  which  you  will  distribute  among  the  clergy  and  vestries  at  nine- 
pence  each  Journal.  I  shall  be  at  Chester  at  the  Commencement  of 
Washington  College,  the  third  Tuesday  in  May.  I  am  fearful  that  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  stay  in  Maryland  till  the  fourth  Tuesday,  to  meet 
you  at  Talbot  Court  House. 

Yours,  etc.,  William  Smith. 

Rilv.  Dr.  West, 
Baltimore,  Md. 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  West. 

May  21,  1790. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  been  informed,  but  have  not  seen  the  advertise- 
ment, that  the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  St.  John's  College  have  de- 
clared their  intention  of  filling  up  the  office  of  principal  of  that  College 
at  the  May  meeting  (viz. :  next  Tuesday)  if  any  person  of  eminent  abili- 
ties shall  offer,  and  that  it  hath  been  notified  that  a  preference  would  be 
given  to  a  stranger  or  some  gentleman  of  great  character  from  Europe. 
Character  in  literature  is  often  found  to  be  deceitful,  and  a  mere  literary 
character,  without  experience  in  teaching  and  governing,  will  not  be  suf- 
ficient ;  nor  will  it  be  easy,  even  among  those  who  have  both  great 
literature  and  experience  abroad,  to  choose  such  as  may  truly  suit  the 
genius  of  America. 

But,  I  doubt  not,  the  worthy  and  respectable  Visitors  and  Governors 


Philadelphia,  July  10th,  1791. 
Mr.  Richard  Bache. 

Bought  of  David  Chambers. 
A  marble  tombstone  for  the  grave  of  his  Excellency,  Benjamin  Franklin, 

Esq ;£i8      o      o 

To  engraving  thirty  letters  at  two  pence  per  letter o       5       o 

Porterage o       I      10 

£\%       6     10 


T79°]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  327 

of  St.  John's  will  duly  consider  every  circumstance  in  their  choice.  I 
have  the  interest  of  that  Seminary  and  its  future  success  much  at  heart. 
I  hope  you  will  attend  the  meeting  and  inform  me  early  on  whom  the 
choice  shall  fall,  if  a  choice  should  now  be  made.  It  would  have  been 
well  if  the  Assembly  had  restored  the  funds  previously  to  an  election. 
But,  I  trust,  there  will  be  no  danger  of  their  not  being  restored  next 
November  sessions.  I  am  happy  to  hear  that  the  number  of  students  in 
the  College  increases,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  if  a  proper  choice  of  a 
head  be  made,  and  the  Legislature  continue  their  nursing  hand,  the 
Maryland  College  will  be  an  ornament  to  the  State.  The  College  of 
Philadelphia  flourishes  greatly,  but  we  received  back  our  funds  in  such 
a  deranged  state  that  I  have  almost  repented  my  removing  back  to  Phila- 
delphia, and  were  I  not  too  far  advanced  in  years  I  am  not  certain 
whether  I  might  not  have  offered  my  services  once  more  as  the  head  of 
one  of  the  Maryland  seminaries.  But  my  family  is  attached  to  Penn- 
svlvania,  and,  by  a  renewal  of  my  former  exertions,  I  hope  yet  to  get 
the  funds  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  restored  to  their  former  foot- 
ing. We  have  an  application  before  the  Legislature  for  the  purpose. 
My  sentiments  respecting  the  choice  of  a  Principal  for  St.  John's,  you 
may  hint  to  Dr.  Clagget  and  Mr.  Sprigg,  but  not  as  expressing  any 
doubt  of  the  prudence  and  zeal  of  any  of  the  worthy  Visitors  and 
Governors,  nor  as  if  I  had  any  further  wish  to  interfere  than  barely  to 
express  my  hasty  thoughts  to  you  in  our  familiar  way. 

I  write  these  lines  hastily  at  Wilmington,  where  I  heard  from  Mr. 
Condon,  for  the  first  time,  that  the  election  was  to  be  on  Tuesday  next. 
Dr.  Andrews  has  some  wish,  had  he  known  in  time,  to  offer  himself  for 
some  place  in  one  of  your  colleges,  where  his  salary  might  be  better 
than  what  we  can  yet  give  at  Philadelphia. 

I  am  yours  affectionately,  William  Smith. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  West, 

Rector  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Baltimore. 

The  union  of  the  University  with  the  College,  and  Dr.  Smith's 
retirement  from  the  Provostship,  left  him  without  stated  employ- 
ment, as  also  without  any  salary  except  the  .£200  allowed  him  by 
the  Trustees  of  the  old  College.  And  being  now  arrived  to  ad- 
vanced years,  his  pecuniary  condition  was  in  some  danger  of  being 
straitened;  for  although  he  had  a  large  amount  of  real  property  in 
several  parts  of  Pennsylvania,  and  his  wife  was  also  in  possession 
of  some  landed  estate,  a  large  portion  of  their  joint  estate  was 
unproductive,  and  was  held  in  this  condition  in  the  well-founded 
hope  of  advancement  in  price  with  the  improvement  of  the  countiy. 

It  was  probably  with  a  knowledge  of  the  convenience  which 


328  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [_l79l 

stated  employment  with  a  money  compensation  would  give  to  him, 
that  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  having,  on  the  13th 
day  of  April,  1 79 1 ,  passed  an  act  relating  to  the  opening  and  im- 
proving of  certain  roads,  rivers,  and  navigable  waters  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  there  being  requisite  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  work 
a  Commission  of  Inquiry,  that  Governor  Mifflin,  on  the  10th  of 
the  following  May,  appointed  Dr.  Smith,  David  Rittenhouse  and 
William  Findley  joint  "agents  of  information"  relating  to  the 
work.  It  seems  strange  that  a  clergyman,  the  late  head  of  two 
colleges,  the  president  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  councils  of  his 
church,  should  be  put  upon  such  a  Commission,  and  especially  that 
he  should  be  made  chairman  of  it.  But  to  no  one  could  the  office 
have  been  more  properly  entrusted.  As  owner  of  large  quantities 
of  land  in  Huntingdon  county — long  the  Ultima  Tlutlc  of  our 
civilization — and  by  his  natural  tastes  as  well,  k\v  men  of  the  day 
were  better  acquainted  with  the  geography,  hydrography  and 
geology  of  Pennsylvania.  His  great  physical  strength,  which  had 
not  yet  failed  him,  his  large  acquaintance  with  the  leading  men  in 
every  part  of  the  Commonwealth,  his  winning  manners — when  he 
had  no  cause  to  make  them  the  reverse  of  winning — and  his  fine 
powers  of  business  of  every  kind,  rendered  him  eminently  fit  to  be 
the  head  even  of  a  Commission  which  would  have  been  so  little 
congenial  to  the  disposition  or  capacities  of  most  of  the  clergy. 

In  the  course  of  his  official  duty  Dr.  Smith  had  many  opportu- 
nities of  seeing  lands  in  different  parts  of  the  State  which  he  was 
certain  would  rise  in  value.  Some  of  these,  at  a  later  date,  he  ac- 
quired, and  this  without  the  least  breach  of  official  trust,  for  the 
acquisition  of  bodies  of  land  for  the  State  or  for  any  body  in  it, 
was  no  part  whatever  of  the  purposes  of  his  appointment. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Franklin, 
who  was  President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society — an 
institution  of  which  Dr.  Smith  was  a  founder  at  its  institution  in 
1769,  and  the  secretary  of  which  he  had  been  from  that  date — the 
Society  requested  Dr.  Smith  to  pronounce  a  commemorative  dis- 
course upon  their  honored  chief  officer.  If  any  man  could  have 
had  a  right  to  refuse  the  office,  Dr.  Smith  could  have  done  so. 
For,  united  with  Thomas  Willing,  William  Allen,  the  Tilghmans 
and  others  of  the  very  best  men  in  Pennsylvania,  he  had  been  for 
many  years  in  political  opposition  to  Dr.  Franklin,  and  Dr.  Frank- 


I/9l]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  32$ 

lin  had  suffered  his  political  opposition  to  pass  into  personal  ma- 
lignancy. But  such  things  made  little  impression  on  Dr.  Smith. 
If  sometimes  angry,  as  no  doubt  he  justly  was,  in  his  anger  he 
sinned  not.  The  sun  never  went  down  on  his  wrath.  Malice, 
hatred,  or  even  the  lighter  kinds  of  uncharitableness,  if  we  can 
judge  by  his  conduct,  never  rested  in  his  heart.  With  the  utmost 
readiness  he  complied  with  the  Society's  request,  and  his  eulogy 
on  Franklin  may  be  taken  to  be  one  of  the  most  skilful  efforts  of 
his  oratory.  It  is  at  this  day  one  of  the  most  agreeable  short 
biographies  that  we  have  of  Franklin,  and  though  published  long 
before  Dr.  Franklin's  autobiography,  in  some  sort  anticipates  it. 

The  eulogy  was  delivered  on  the  1st  of  March,  1791,  in  that 
grand  edifice  of  old  Philadelphia,  the  German  Lutheran  Church,* 
on  Fourth  street  above  Arch.  Great  efforts  were  taken  by  the  Philo- 
sophical Society  to  make  the  scene  impressive.  The  ceremonies 
were  attended  by  the  President  and  Mrs.  Washington,  the  Vice- 
President  and  Mrs.  Adams,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States,  by  the  Governor  and  Legislature 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  by  a  large  number  of  distinguished  citizens. 
The  American  Philosophical  Society  was  there  in  corporate  dig- 
nit)',  and  a  special  place  was  given  to  the  brotherhood  of  printers. 

The  orator  having  ascended  the  pulpit,  opens  in  a  grand  melo- 
dramatic fugue,  worthy — had  the  performance  been  a  musical 
one — of  Sebastian  Bach  himself;  a  fit  exordium  to  the  memory  of 
the  man  who  tore  lightning  from  heaven,  and  a  sceptre  from 
tyrants : 

Citizens  of Pennsylvania  !  Luminaries  of  science  !  Assembled  fathers  of 
America  ! 

Heard  you  not  that  solemn  interrogatory? 

Who  is  he  that  now  recedes  from  his  labors  among  you  ? 

What  citizen,  super-eminent  in  council,  do  you  now  deplore? 

What  luminary,  what  splendid  sun  of  science,  from  the  hallowed  walks 
of  philosophy,  now  withdraws  his  beams? 

What  father  of  his  country,  what  hero,  what  statesman,  what  law- 
giver, is  now  extinguished  from  your  political  hemisphere,  and  invites 
the  mournful  obsequies? 

Is  it  he — your  Franklin?     It  cannot  be  !     Long  since,  full  of  years, 

*This  fine  historic  building  was  pulled  down  in  1875. 


33©  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l7<?I 

and  full  01  honors,  hath  he  submitted  to  the  inexorable  call,  and  pro- 
ceeded on  his  fated  journey.*  From  west  to  east,  by  land  and  on  the 
wide  ocean,  to  the  utmost  extent  of  the  civilized  globe,  the  tale  hath 
been  told — that  the  venerable  sage  of  Pennsylvania,  the  patriot  and 
patriarch  of  America,  is  no  more.  .  .  . 

It  seldom  happens  that  they  who  are  first  called  to  give  celebrity  to 
the  actions  of  great  men,  are  placed  in  that  exact  situation,  either  in 
respect  to  time  or  point  of  view,  which  may  enable  them  to  delineate  a 
whole  character,  in  all  its  proportions  and  beauty.  This  is  a  work,  of 
all  others,  the  most  difficult  in  the  performance  ;  nor  is  the  difficulty  les- 
sened by  the  acknowledged  lustre  and  eminence  of  the  character  in  view. 
And  from  hence  it  hath  happened,  perhaps,  that  in  eulogy  and  panegy- 
ric, but  few  of  the  moderns,  and  not  many  of  the  ancients  have  been 
successful.  While  they  have  been  striving  to  weave  the  garlands  of 
others,  their  own  laurels  have  withered  and  dropped  from  their  brow. 

Yet,  neither  the  risk  of  character,  nor  the  difficulties  of  the  subject, 
ought  to  deter  us  from  attempting,  at  least,  to  pay  the  honors  due  to 
transcendent  merit.  .  .  . 

The  desire  of  fame  and  posthumous  glory,  "grasping  at  ages  to 
come,"  as  it  bespeaks  the  native  dignity  of  the  soul  of  man,  and  anti- 
cipates his  existence  in  another  world,  is  also  the  most  powerful  incen- 
tive to  moral  excellence  in  this  world.  It  is  for  the  interest  of  mankind 
that  so  divine  a  passion  should  be  cultivated,  rewarded,  and  held  up  for 
imitation.  The  neglect  of  it  would  have  an  unfriendly  influence  on  vir- 
tue and  public  spirit.  The  wisest  and  most  renowned  nations  have  not 
only  voted  thanks  and  triumphs  to  their  illustrious  citizens  while  living, 
but  have  celebrated  them  in  eulogies  when  dead,  and  have  erected  altars 
of  virtue  and  monuments  of  honor  to  perpetuate  their  names  to  suc- 
ceeding ages  and  generations.  .  .  . 

And  circumstanced  as  the  people  of  these  United  States  now  are,  and 
as  our  posterity,  for  ages  to  come,  must  be  in  building  up  and  com- 
pleting the  glorious  fabric  of  American  empire  and  happiness,  it  might 
be  a  wise  institution  if  we  should  make  at  least  an  annual  pause,  and 
consecrate  a  day  to  the  review  of  past  events,  the  commemoration  of 
illustrious  characters  who  have  borne  a  share  in  the  foundation  and 
establishment  of  our  renown,  and  particularly  those  of  whom  we  may 
have  been  bereft  during  each  preceding  year. 

In  that  view,  how  many  patriots,  statesmen  and  philosophers  would 
now  pass  before  us?     A  Livingston,  a  Bowdoin,  a  Franklin  !  .  .  . 

In  the  earliest  stages  of  life,  he  had  conceived  the  mighty  idea  of 
American  empire  and  glory  ;  but  like  Hercules  in  the  cradle,  he  was 
ignorant  of  his  own  strength,  and  had  not  conceived  the  achievements 
and  labors  which  awaited  him.     He  had  not  conceived  that  he  was,  one 

*  He  died  April  17,  1790. 


I79I]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  331 

day,  to  contend  with  kings  and  potentates  for  the  rights  of  his  country; 
to  extort  from  them  an  acknowledgment  of  its  sovereignty,  and  to  sub- 
scribe with  his  name  the  sacred  instruments*  which  were  to  give  it  a  pre- 
eminent rank  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  to  assure  its  liberty 
and  independence  to  the  latest  ages  ! 

He  was  content  in  his  humble,  but  honorable  station  of  an  useful  pri- 
vate citizen,  to  cherish  in  his  own  bosom,  and  in  distant  view,  the  idea 
of  American  greatness ;  and  he  cherished  those  also  in  whom  he  dis- 
covered ideas  congenial  to  his  own  !  . 

As  the  respect  due  to  the  public  bodies,  which  compose  such  an  illus- 
trious part  of  this  assembly,  forbids  me  to  trespass  too  long  upon  their 
precious  time,  I  must  forbear  entering  upon  a  full  detail  of  the  life  and 
actions  of  this  great  man  in  those  several  relations,  and  shall,  therefore, 
touch  but  briefly  on  such  parts  of  his  character  as  are  either  generally 
known  in  America,  or  have  been  already  detailed  by  his  numerous 
panegyrists,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  .  .  . 

Descended  from  parents  who  first  settled  in  America  above  an  hun- 
dred years  ago  ;f  he  was  born  in  Boston,  in  January,  1706.  The 
account  of  his  education,  which  was  such  only  as  the  common  schools 
of  that  day  afforded,  the  various  incidents  of  his  younger  years,  and  the 
different  occupations  and  professions  for  which  his  parents  seemed  to 
have  intended  him,  before  he  was  apprenticed  to  his  brother,  in  the 
printing  business,  at  the  age  of  twelve  years,  although  recorded  by  him- 
self, and  full  of  instruction,  I  shall  leave  wholly  to  his  biographers,  till 
his  arrival  at  Philadelphia,  about  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age,  to  which 
city  he  came  from  the  city  of  New  York,  partly  by  water,  and  partly  by 
land  on  foot,  his  stock  of  clothes  and  cash  at  a  very  low  ebb,  to  seek  for 
employment  as  a  journeyman  printer.  But  by  industry  and  the  applica- 
tion of  his  great  natural  talents  to  business,  he  soon  was  enabled  to  pro- 
cure a  press,  and  to  stand  upon  his  own  footing. 

This  account  of  his  low  beginnings,  it  is  hoped,  will  not  scandalize 
any  of  his  respectable  fraternity.  No,  gentlemen  ;J  but  you  will  exult 
in  it  when  you  consider  to  what  eminence  he  raised  himself,  and  raised 
his  country,  by  the  right  use  of  the  press.  When  you  consider  that  the 
press  was  the  great  instrument  which  he  employed  to  draw  the  attention 
of  Pennsylvania  to  habits  of  virtue  and  industry  ;   to  the  institution  of 

*The  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
the  treaties  of  amity  and  commerce,  and  of  alliance  with  France;  the  definitive  treaty 
of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  acknowledging  the  independence  of  America,  etc. 

f  His  father,  Josiah  Franklin,  settled  in  New  England  in  1682,  and  his  mother, 
Abiah  Folger,  was  the  daughter  of  Peter  Folger  of  Nantucket,  one  of  the  first  settlers 
of  that  country. 

J  This  part  was  more  immediately  addressed  to  the  printers  of  Philadelphia,  who 
attended  as  a  body,  at  the  delivery  of  this  oration. 


332  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [ 1 79 1 

societies  for  the  promotion  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  the  mechanic 
arts;  to  the  founding  of  schools,  libraries,  and  hospitals,  for  the  diffu- 
sion of  useful  knowledge,  and  the  advancement  of  humanity — when  you 
consider  this,  you  will  "go  and  do  likewise;"  you  will,  with  profes- 
sional joy  and  pride,  observe,  that  from  the  torch  which  Franklin 
kindled  by  the  means  of  his  press,  in  the  New  World,  "  Sparks  have 
been  already  stolen  which  are  lighting  up  the  sacred  flame  of  liberty, 
virtue  and  wisdom  over  the  entire  face  of  the  globe."*  Be  it  your  part 
still  to  feed  that  torch  by  means  of  the  press,  till  its  divine  flame  reaches 
the  skies  ! 

For  the  purpose  of  aiding  his  press,  and  increasing  the  materials  of 
information,  one  of  the  first  societies  formed  by  Dr.  Franklin  was  in 
the  year  1728,  about  the  twenty-second  year  of  his  age,  and  was  called 
the  Junto.  It  consisted  of  a  select  number  of  his  younger  friends,  who 
met  weekly  for  the  "  Discussion  of  questions  in  morality,  politics,  and 
natural  philosophy."  The  number  was  limited  to  twelve  members,  who 
were  bound  together  in  all  the  ties  of  friendship,  and  engaged  to  assist 
each  other,  not  only  in  the  mutual  communication  of  knowledge,  but 
in  all  their  worldly  undertakings.  This  society,  after  having  subsisted 
forty  years,  and  having  contributed  to  the  formation  of  some  very  great 
men,  besides  Dr.  Franklin  himself,  became  at  last  the  foundation  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  now  assembled  to  pay  the  debt  of 
gratitude  to  his  memory.  A  book  containing  many  of  the  questions 
discussed  by  the  Junto  was,  on  the  formation  of  the  American  Philoso- 
phical Society,  delivered  into  my  hands,  for  the  purpose  of  being  digested, 
and  in  due  time  published  among  the  transactions  of  that  body.  Many 
of  the  questions  are  curious  and  curiously  handled ;  such  as  the 
following :    .    .    . 

Dr.  Smith  here  gives  several  of  them. 

These  and  such  similar  questions  of  a  very  mixed  nature,  being  pro- 
posed in  one  evening,  were  generally  discussed  the  succeeding  evening, 
and  the  substance  of  the  arguments  entered  in  their  books. 

But  Dr.  Franklin  did  not  rest  satisfied  with  the  institution  of  this 
literary  club  for  the  improvement  of  himself  and  a  few  of  his  select 
friends.  He  proceeded,  year  after  year,  in  the  projecting  and  estab- 
lishing other  institutions  for  the  benefit  of  the  community  at  large. 

Thus,  in  1731,  he  set  on  foot  the  "Library  Company  of  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,"  a  most  important  institution  to  all  ranks  of  people; 
giving  them  access,  at  a  small  expense,  to  books  on  every  useful  subject; 
amounting  in  the  whole  to  near  ten  thousand  volumes,  and  the  number 
daily  increasing.  The  affairs  of  the  company  have  been  managed  from 
the  beginning  by  directors  of  the  roost  respectable  characters.     Their 

*  The  Abbe  Fauchet. 


I79l]  RE-V.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  333 

estate  is  now  of  very  considerable  value  ;  they  have  erected  an  elegant 
house,  and  over  the  front  door  of  the  building  have  prepared  a  niche 
for  the  statue  of  their  venerable  founder;  who,  after  the  establishment 
of  this  company,  still  proceeded  to  promote  other  establishments  and 
associations,  such  as  fire-companies ;  the  nightly-watch  for  the  city  of 
Philadelphia  ;  a  plan  for  cleaning,  lighting  and  ornamenting  the  streets; 
and  an  association  for  insuring  houses  against  damages  by  fire  ;  to  which, 
as  collateral,  he  soon  afterwards  added  his  plan  for  improving  chimnies 
and  fire  places,  which  was  first  printed  at  Philadelphia  in  1745,  entitled 
"An  Account  of  the  New  Invented  Pennsylvania  Fire  Places;  "  which 
gave  ri.-ve  to  the  open  stoves  now  in  general  use,  to  the  comfort  of  thou- 
sands, who,  assembled  round  them  in  the  wintry  night,  bless  the  name 
of  the  inventor  which  they  yet  bear  ! 

The  next  institution,  in  the  foundation  of  which  he  was  the  principal 
agent,  was  the  academy  and  charitable  school  of  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia;  the  plan  of  which  he  drew  up  and  published  in  the  year  1749,  as 
"suitable  to  the  state  of  an  infant  country;  "  but  looking  forward,  as 
he  did  in  all  his  plans,  to  a  more  improved  state  of  society,  he  declared 
this  academy  to  be  "intended  as  a  foundation  for  posterity  to  erect  into  a 
college  or  seminary  of  learning  more  extensive  and  suitable  to  future 
circumstances;"  and  the  same  was  accordingly  erected  into  a  college 
or  seminary  of  universal  learning,  upon  the  most  enlarged  and  liberal 
plan,  about  five  years  afterwards. 

The  Pennsylvania  Hospital  is  the  next  monument  of  his  philanthropy 
and  public  spirit;  for  the  establishment  and  endowment  of  which  he 
was  happily  instrumental  in  obtaining  a  legislative  sanction  and  grant, 
by  his  great  influence  in  the  general  assembly,  in  the  year  1752. 

These  various  institutions,  which  do  so  much  honor  to  Pennsylvania, 
he  projected  and  saw  established  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  his 
residence  in  this  State.  Many  more  must  have  been  his  good  offices 
and  actions  among  his  friends  and  fellow-citizens  during  that  period, 
which  were  done  in  secret,  and  of  which  no  record  remains ;  but  they 
went  before  him  to  another  world,  and  are  written  in  durable  characters 
by  the  pen  of  the  recording  Angel. 

A  life  so  assiduously  employed  in  devising  and  executing  schemes  for 
the  public  good  could  not  fail  to  aid  him  in  his  political  career.  He 
first  became  clerk  of  the  general  assembly,  and  then  a  member  of  the 
same  for  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  for  the  space  of  fourteen  years  succes- 
sively. 

In  1744  a  Spanish  privateer,  having  entered  the  bay  of  Delaware, 
ascended  as  high  as  New  Castle  to  the  great  terror  of  the  citizens  of 
Philadelphia.  On  occasion  of  this  alarm,  he  wrote  his  first  political 
pamphlet  called  Plain  Truth,  to  exhort  his  fellow-citizens  to  the  bearing 
of  arms,  which  laid  the  foundation  of  those  military  associations  which 
followed,  at  different  times,  for  the  defence  of  the  country. 


334  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l/9I 

His  popularity  was  now  great  among  all  parties  and  denominations 
of  men.  But  the  unhappy  divisions  and  disputes  which  commenced  in 
the  provincial  politics  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  year  1754  obliged  him 
soon  afterwards  to  choose  his  party.  He  managed  his  weapons  like  a 
veteran  combatant  ;  nor  was  he  opposed  with  unequal  strength  or  skill. 
The  debates  of  that  day  have  been  read  and  admired  as  among  the  most 
masterly  compositions  of  the  kind  which  our  language  affords;  but  it  is 
happy  for  us,  at  the  present  day,  that  the  subject  of  them  is  no  longer 
interesting ;  and  if  it  were,  he  who  now  addresses  you  was  too  much  an 
actor  in  the  scene  to  be  fit  for  the  discussion  of  it.  Dr.  Franklin,  by 
the  appointment  of  the  general  assembly,  quitted  the  immediate  field  of 
controversy,  and  in  June,  1757,  embarked  for  England,  to  contest  his 
point  at  the  court  of  Great  Britain,  where  he  continued  for  several  years 
with  various  success  in  the  business  of  his  agency.  In  the  summer  of 
1762  he  returned  to  America;  but  the  disputes  which  had  so  long  agi- 
tated the  province,  far  from  being  quieted  by  his  former  mission,  continued 
to  rage  with  greater  violence  than  ever,  and  he  was  again  appointed  by 
the  assembly  to  resume  his  agency  at  the  court  of  Great  Britain.  Much 
opposition  was  made  to  his  re-appointment,  which  seems  greatly  to  have 
affected  his  feelings,  as  it  came  from  men  with  whom  he  had  long  been 
connected  both  in  public  and  private  life,  "the  very  ashes  of  whose 
former  friendship,"  he  declared,  "that  he  revered."  His  pathetic 
farewell  to  Pennsylvania  on  the  5th  of  November,  1764,  the  day  before 
his  departure,  is  a  strong  proof  of  the  agitation  of  his  mind  on  this 
occasion. 

"I  am  now,"  says  he,  "to  take  leave  (perhaps  a  last  leave)  of  the 
country  I  love,  and  in  which  I  have  spent  the  greatest  part  of  my  life. 
Esto  perpetua  !  I  wish  every  kind  of  prosperity  to  my  friends,  and  I 
forgive  my  enemies." 

But  under  whatsoever  circumstances  this  second  embassy  was  under- 
taken, it  appears  to  have  been  a  measure  pre-ordained  in  the  councils 
of  heaven  ;  and  it  will  be  forever  remembered,  to  the  honor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, that  the  agent  selected  to  assert  and  defend  the  rights  of  a  single 
province  at  the  court  of  Great  Britain  became  the  bold  asserter  of  the 
rights  of  America  in  general;  "and,  beholding  the  fetters  that  were 
forging  for  her,  conceived  the  magnanimous  thought  of  rending  them 
asunder  before  they  could  be  riveted."*  And  this  brings  us  to  consider 
him  in  a  more  enlarged  view,  viz.  : 

Secondly — As  a  citizen  of  America,  one  of  the  chief  and  greatest 
workmen  in  the  foundation  and  establishment  of  her  empire  and  renown. 

But  on  this  head  little  need  be  said  on  the  present  occasion.  The 
subject  has  been  already  exhausted  by  his  eulogists,  even  in  distant 
countries.      His  opposition  to  the  Stamp-Act,  his  noble  defence  of  the 


*  Abbe  Fauchet. 


I791]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  335 

liberties  of  America,  at  the  bar  of  parliament,  and  his  great  services, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  during  the  revolution,  are  too  well  known  to 
need  further  mention  in  this  assembly,  or  in  the  presence  of  so  many  of 
his  compatriots  and  fellow-laborers  in  the  great  work.  I  hasten,  there- 
fore, to  consider  him  in  another  illustrious  point  of  view,  viz.  : 

Thirdly — As  a  citizen  of  the  world — successfully  laboring  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  human  race,  by  the  diffusion  of  liberal  science  and 
the  invention  of  useful  arts. 

Endowed  with  a  penetrating  and  inquisitive  genius,  speculative  and 
philosophical  subjects  engaged  his  early  attention ;  but  he  loved  them 
only  as  thev  were  useful,  and  pursued  them  no  farther  than  as  he  found 
his  researches  applicable  to  some  substantial  purpose  in  life.  His  stock 
of  knowledge  and  the  fruits  of  his  investigations,  he  never  hoarded  up 
for  his  own  private  use.  Whatever  he  discovered — whatever  he  con- 
sidered as  beneficial  t,o  mankind — fresh  as  it  was  conceived,  or  brought 
forth  in  his  own  mind,  he  communicated  to  his  fellow-citizens,  by 
means  of  his  newspapers  and  almanacs,  in  delicate  and  palatable  mor- 
sels, for  the  advancement  of  industry,  frugality  and  other  republican 
virtues;  and,  at  a  future  day,  as  occasion  might  require,  he  would 
collect  and  digest  the  parts,  and  set  out  the  whole  into  one  rich  feast 
of  useful  maxims  and  practical  wisdom. 

Of  this  kind  is  his  celebrated  address,  entitled  "The  Way  to  Wealth" 
which  is  a  collection  or  digest  of  the  various  sentences,  proverbs  and 
wise  maxims,  which,  during  a  course  of  many  years,  he  had  occasionally 
published,  in  his  Poor  Richard's  Almanac,  on  topics  of  industry,  fru- 
gality, and  the  duty  of  minding  one  s  own  business.  Had  he  never 
written  any  thing  more  than  this  admirable  address,  it  would  have  in- 
sured him  immortality  as — The  Farmer  s  Philosopher,  the  Rural  Sage, 
the  Yeoman  s  and  Peasant' s  Oracle. 

But  greater  things  lay  before  him  !  Although  as  a  philosopher,  as 
well  as  a  politician,  he  remained  unconscious  of  the  plenitude  of  his 
own  strength  and  talents,  until  called  into  further  exertions  by  the  mag- 
nitude of  future  objects  and  occasions. 

There  is  something  worthy  of  observation  in  the  progress  of  science 
and  human  genius.  As  in  the  natural  world  there  is  a  variety  and  suc- 
cession of  seeds  and  crops  for  different  soils  and  seasons;  so  (if  the 
comparison  may  be  allowed)  in  the  philosophical  world,  there  have 
been  different  seras  for  seed-time  and  harvest  of  the  different  branches 
of  arts  and  sciences;  and  it  is  remarkable  that,  in  countries  far  distant 
from  each  other,  different  men  have  fallen  into  the  same  tracks  of 
science,  and  have  made  similar  and  correspondent  discoveries,  at  the 
same  period  of  time,  without  the  least  communication  with  each  other. 
Whether  it  be  that,  at  the  proper  season  of  vegetation  for  those  different 
branches,' there  be  a  kind  of  intellectual  or  mental  farina  disseminated, 
which  falling  on  congenial  spirits  in  different  parts  of  the  globe,  take 


33^  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [179I 

root  at  the  same  time,  and  spring  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  perfec- 
tion, according  to  the  richness  of  the  soil  and  the  aptitude  of  the 
season  ? 

From  the  beginning  of  the  year  1 746,  till  about  twenty  years  after- 
wards, was  the  aera  of  electricity,  as  no  other  branch  of  natural  philoso- 
phy was  so  much  cultivated  during  that  period.  In  America,  and  in 
the  mind  of  Franklin,  it  found  a  rich  bed:  the  seed  took  root  and 
sprung  into  a  great  tree,  before  he  knew  that  similar  seeds  had  vege- 
tated, or  risen  to  any  height  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

Before  that  period,  philosophers  amused  themselves  only  with  the 
smaller  phenomena  of  electricity;  such  as  relate  to  the  attraction  of 
light  bodies;  the  distances  to  which  such  attraction  would  extend;  the 
luminous  appearances  produced  by  the  excited  glass  tube ;  and  the  fir- 
ing spirits  and  inflammable  air  by  electricity.  Little  more  was  known 
on  the  subject,  than  Thales  had  discovered  2,000  years  before;  that 
certain  bodies,  such  as  amber  and  glass,  had  this  attractive  quality. 
Our  most  indefatigable  searchers  into  nature,  who  in  other  branches 
seemed  to  have  explored  her  profoundest  depths,  were  content  with 
what  was  known  in  former  ages  of  electricity,  without  advancing  any- 
thing new  of  their  own.  Sufficient  data  and  experiments  were  wanting 
to  reduce  the  doctrine  and  phenomena  of  electricity  into  any  rules  or 
system;  and  to  apply  them  to  any  beneficial  purposes  in  life.  This 
great  achievement,  which  had  eluded  the  industry  and  abilities  of  a 
Boyle  and  a  Newton,  was  reserved  for  a  Franklin.  With  that  diligence, 
ingenuity,  and  strength  of  judgment,  fcr  which  he  was  distinguished  in 
all  his  undertakings,  he  commenced  his  experiments  and  discoveries  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  year  1746;  led  thereto,  as  he  tells  us,  by  follow- 
ing the  directions  of  his  friend,  Peter  Collinson  of  London,  in  the  use 
of  an  electric  tube,  which  that  benevolent  philosopher  had  presented  to 
the  library  company  of  Philadelphia.  The  assiduity  with  which  he 
prosecuted  his  investigations,  appears  from  his  first  letter  to  Mr.  Collin- 
son, of  March  28th,  1747  : 

For  my  own  part,  says  he,  I  never  was  before  engaged  in  any  study  that  so  totally 
engrossed  my  attention  and  my  time,  as  this  has  lately  done.  For,  what  with  making 
experiments,  when  I  can  be  alone,  and  repeating  them  to  my  friends  and  acquaintance, 
who,  from  the  novelty  of  the  thing,  come  continually  in  crowds  to  see  them,  I  have 
for  some  months  past  had  leisure  for  little  else. 

He  had  a  delight  in  communicating  his  discoveries  to  his  friends; 
and  such  was  his  manner  of  communication,  with  that  winning  modesty, 
that  he  appeared  rather  seeking  to  acquire  information  himself  than  to 
give  it  to  others ;  which  gave  him  a  great  advantage  in  his  way  of 
reasoning  over  those  who  followed  a  more  dogmatic  manner. 

"Possiblv,"  he  would  say,  "these  experiments  may  not  be  new  to 
you,  as,  among  the  numbers  daily  employed  in  such  observations  on 
your  side  the  water,  it  is  probable  some  one  or  other  has  hit  on  them 


I/91]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  337 

before."  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  life,  he  observed  the 
same  modest  and  cautious  method  of  communication.  The  first  philo- 
sophical paper  inserted  in  his  collection,  in  1756,  is  entitled  "Physical 
and  Meteorological  Observations,  Conjectures  and  Suppositions;"  and 
His  last  at  Pussy,  in  1784,  are  of  a  similar  title,  viz.  :  "  Meteorological 
Imaginations  and  Conjectures.  Loose  Thoughts  on  an  Universal 
Fluid,"  and  the  like. 

But  I  return  to  the  account  of  his  electrical  labors,  and  the  materials 
on  which  they  were  grounded.  Von  Kliest,  about  the  latter  end  of  the 
year  1745,  had  accidentally  discovered  some  of  the  powers  and  proper- 
ties of  what  is  called  the  Leyden-phial,  and  sent  an  account  of  the 
same  to  Lieberkhun  at  Berlin,  which  soon  made  this  branch  of  science 
more  interesting.  As  soon  as  the  account  of  this  discovery  reached 
America  (together  with  Mr.  Collinson's  tube),  it  excited  no  less 
curiosity  here,  than  it  had  done  in  Europe;  and  Dr.  Franklin  writes  to 
his  friend  Collinson  in  September.  1747,  "that  no  less  than  one  hun- 
dred large  glass  tubes  had  been  sold  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  space  of 
four  months  preceding."  But  although  Von  Kliest  had  discovered 
some  properties  of  this  phial,  and  Muschenbroek,  to  his  cost,  had  ex- 
perienced others  (by  which  the  phial,  or  bottle  received  his  name)  it 
remained  for  Dr.  Franklin  to  discover  its  true  principles,  and  how,  by 
means  of  it,  to  accumulate,  retain,  and  discharge  any  quantity  of  the 
electric  fluid,  with  safety.  The  account  of  this  discovery  and  of  the 
experiments  on  which  it  was  founded,  he  communicated  to  Mr.  Collin- 
son, in  his  letter  of  September  1,  1747,  with  his  usual  caution  and 
modesty,  in  the  following  terms  : 

The  necessary  trouble  of  copying  long  letters,  which,  perhaps,  when  they  come  lo 
your  hands  may  contain  nothing  new,  or  worth  your  reading  (so  quick  is  the  progress 
made  with  you  in  electricity)  half  discourages  me  from  writing  more  on  that  subject. 
Yet  I  cannot  forbear  adding  a  few  observations  on  M.  Muschenbroek's  wonderful 
bottle. 

In  this  letter,  he  discloses  the  whole  magical  powers  of  this  bottle ; 
by  proving  that  it  would  receive  an  accumulation  of  the  electric  fluid 
on  the  inside,  only  as  it  discharged  an  equal  quantity  from  the  outside. 
This  discovery  gave  him  the  greatest  advantages  over  all  the  electricians 
of  Europe.  It  put  into  his  hands  (as  it  were)  the  key  which  opened 
into  all  the  secrets  of  electricity,  and  enabled  him  to  make  his  succeed- 
ing experiments,  with  a  sure  aim,  while  his  brethren  in  Europe  were 
groping  in  the  dark,  and  some  of  them  falling  martyrs  to  their  experi- 
ments. 

He  was  the  first  who  fired  gun-powder,  gave  magnetism  to  needles  of 
steel,  melted  metals,  and  killed  animals  of  considerable  size,  by  means 
of  electricity.  He  was  the  first  who  informed  electricians,  and  the 
world  in  general,  of  the  power  of  metalline-points,  in  conducting  the 
electric  fluid ;  acknowledging  at  the  same  time,  with  a  candor  worthy 
22 


33§  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [179I 

of  true  philosophy,  that  he  received  the  first  information  of  this  power 
from  Mr.  Thomas  Hopkinson,*  who  had  used  such  points,  expecting 
by  their  means  to  procure  a  more  powerful  and  concentrated  discharge 
of  the  Leyden-phial ;  but  found  the  effect  to  be  directly  contrary.  It 
was,  undoubtedly,  the  discovery  of  this  wonderful  power  of  metalline- 
points,  in  carrying  off  and  silently  dispersing  the  electric  fluid  when 
accumulated,  and  the  similarity  and  resemblance  which  he  observed 
between  the  effects  of  lightning  and  electricity,  which  first  suggested  to 
him  the  sublime  and  astonishing  idea  of  draining  the  clouds  of  their 
fire,  and  disarming  the  thunder  of  its  terrors;  flattering  himself  at  the 
same  time  with  the  pleasing  hopes  of  gratifying  a  desire,  long  before 
become  habitual  to  him,  of  rendering  this  discovery  in  some  manner 
useful  and  beneficial  to  his  fellow-creatures.  This  appears  by  his  notes 
of  November  7,  1749,  when  enumerating  all  the  known  particulars  of 
resemblance  between  lightning  and  electricity,  he  concludes  with  saying  : 

The  electric  fluid  is  attracted  by  points.  We  do  not  know  whether  this  property  he 
in  lightning;  but  since  they  agree  in  all  the  particulars  in  which  we  can  already  com- 
pare them,  it  is  possible  that  they  agree  likewise  in  this:   Let  the  experiment  be  made. 

Difficulties,  without  doubt,  occurred  in  making  this  experiment,  both 
as  to  the  manner  and  least  expensive  way  of  reaching  the  clouds  with 
his  points ;  for  we  do  not  find  that  he  accomplished  his  grand  experi- 
ment, till  in  June,  1752.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend  Collinson,  not  dated, 
but  probably  written  in  1749,  he  communicates  his  "Observations  and 
suppositions  towards  forming  a  new  hypothesis,  for  explaining  the 
several  phenomena  of  thunder-gusts;"  which  was  followed  in  July, 
1750,  by  another  letter  to  the  same,  containing  "Opinions  and  conjec- 
tures concerning  the  properties  and  effects  of  the  electric  matter,"  and 
giving  particular  directions  for  determining  whether  clouds  containing 
lightning  are  electrified  or  not;  for  ascertaining  of  which,  his  idea  at 
this  time  was,  "the  placing  a  pointed  iron  rod  on  some  high  tower  or 
steeple,  and  attempting  to  draw  sparks  from  it,"  there  being  at  that 
time  no  lofty  spires  in  Philadelphia.  But  his  ever-inventive  genius, 
which  could  derive  lessons  of  philosophy  even  from  the  play  of  children, 
soon  furnished  him  with  a  more  simple  and  less  expensive  method :  For 
in  June,  1752,  he  took  the  opportunity  of  an  approaching  thunder-storm, 
to  walk  into  a  field,  where  there  was  a  shed  convenient  for  his  purpose. 
Dreading  the  ridicule  which  too  commonly  attends  unsuccessful  at- 
tempts in  science,  he  communicated  his  intended  experiment  to  no  per- 
son but  his  son,  who  assisted  him  in  raising  a  kite,  which  he  had  pre- 
pared of  a  large  silk  handkerchief,  extended  by  two  cross  sticks.     After 

*""This  power  of  points,  to  throw  off  the  electrical  fire,  was  first  communicated  to 
me  by  my  ingenious  friend,  Mr.  Thomas  Hopkinson,  since  deceased;  whose  virtue 
and  integrity,  in  every  station  of  life,  public  and  private,  will  ever  make  his  memory 
dear  to  those  who  knew  him,  and  knew  how  to  value  him." 


179O  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  339 

waiting  for  some  time,  and  almost  beginning  to  despair  of  success,  he 
drew  the  first  spark,  with  his  knuckle  from  a  key  suspended  to  the  string 
of  the  kite.  Another  and  another  succeeded;  and  as  the  string  became 
wet,  he  collected  fire  copiously.  What  must  have  been  his  raptures  on 
the  success  of  this  grand  experiment ;  leading  him  to  anticipate  that 
happy  and  beneficent  application  of  the  principles  of  electricity,  to  the 
saving  of  life  and  property,  which  alone  would  have  recorded  his  name 
among  the  benefactors  of  mankind  ;  even  if  his  discoveries  of  those 
principles  could  never  have  been  extended  or  applied  to  any  other  use- 
ful purpose  in  the  world.  Similar  must  his  raptures  have  been  to  those 
of  a  Newton,  when  by  applying  the  laws  of  gravitation  and  projection 
first  to  the  moon,  he  was  enabled  to  extend  them  to  the  whole  solar 
system,  as  is  beautifully  described  by  the  poet : 

What  were  his  raptures  then  !  how  pure  !  how  strong ! 
And  what  the  triumphs  of  old  Greece  and  Rome 

With  his  compar'd When  nature  and  her  laws 

Stood  all  subdued  by  Him,  and  open  laid 
Their  every  latent  glory  to  his  view. 

All  intellectual  eye;  our  solar  round 
First  gazing  thro',  he  by  the  blended  power 
Of  Gravitation  and  Projection  saw 
The  whole  in  silent  harmony  revolve. 
First  to  the  neighb'ring  Moon  this  mighty  key 
Of  nature  he  applied — Behold !   it  turn'd 
The  secret  wards;  it  open'd  wide  the  course 
And  various  aspects  of  the  Queen  of  Night; 
Whether  she  wanes  into  a  scanty  orb 
Or,  waxing  broad,  with  her  pale  shadowy  light, 
In  a  soft  deluge  overflows  the  sky.* 

Dr.  Franklin's  letters,  giving  an  account  of  his  electrical  experiments 
and  discoveries,  and,  among  the  rest,  of  this  grand  experiment  of  draw- 
ing electricity  from  the  clouds,  were  soon  published  in  Europe,  and 
translated  into  different  languages.  "  Nothing  was  ever  written  on  the 
subject  of  electricity,''  says  Dr.  Priestly,  "  which  was  more  generally 
read  and  admired  in  all  -parts  of  Europe,  than  those  letters.  Electri- 
cians everywhere  employed  themselves  in  repeating  his  experiments,  or 
exhibiting  them  for  money.  All  the  world,  in  a  manner,  and  even 
kings  themselves,  flocked  to  see  them,  and  all  returned  full  of  admira- 
tion for  the  inventor  of  them." 

Amidst  this  general  admiration,  Dr.  Franklin  himself  continued  to 
communicate  his  knowledge  and  discoveries  under  the  humble  appella- 
tion of  conjectures  or  guesses:  But  no  man  ever  made  bolder  or  happier 
guesses,  either  in  philosophy  or  politics ;  He  was  likewise  a  bold  experi- 
menter in  both.     He  had  by  accident  received  a  discharge  of  two  of 

*  Thomson's  poem  to  the  memory  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 


34°  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1791 

his  large  electrical  jars  through  his  head,  which  struck  him  to  the  ground, 
but  did  him  no  lasting  injury.  He  had  likewise  seen  a  young  woman 
receive  a  still  greater  shock  or  discharge  of  electricity  through  her  head, 
which  she  had  inadvertently  brought  too  near  the  conductor,  which 
knocked  her  down ;  but  she  instantly  got  up,  and  complained  of 
nothing  further.  This  encouraged  him  to  make  the  experiment  on  six 
men  at  the  same  time,  the  first  placing  his  hand  on  the  head  of  the 
second,  and  so  on.  He  then  discharged  his  two  jars,  by  laying  his 
conducting  rod  on  the  head  of  the  first  man.  They  all  dropped  to- 
gether; thinking  they  had  been  struck  down,  as  it  were,  by  some  kind 
of  magic,  or  secret  operation  of  nature ;  declaring  when  they  rose  that 
they  had  neither  seen  the  flash,  nor  heard  the  report  of  any  discharge. 

For  his  manner  of  delivering  his  philosophical  opinions,  under  the 
humble  appellation  of  conjectures  and  suppositions,  he  makes  the  fol- 
lowing apology,  more  humble  still:  "  I  own,"  (says  he,  in  one  of  his 
letters),  "that  I  have  too  strong  a  penchant  to  building  hypotheses: 
They  indulge  my  natural  indolence."  But  indolence  was  no  part  of 
his  character;  and  his  success  in  this  method  of  philosophizing  will  res- 
cue it  from  much  of  the  reproach  which  has  been  too  liberally  cast  upon 
it.  Without  forming  hypotheses,  experimental  philosophy  would  only 
be  a  jumble  of  facts,  ranged  under  no  heads,  nor  disposed  into  any  sys- 
tem. Dr.  Franklin,  without  troubling  himself  with  mathematical  specu- 
lations, or  showing  any  inclination  towards  them,  nevertheless  reasoned 
with  all  the  accuracy  and  precision  of  the  deepest  mathematician.  And 
although  he  might  be  sometimes  mistaken  where  the  truth  could  be  de- 
veloped only  by  the  help  of  pure  mathematics,  yet  he  was  rarely  mistaken 
in  his  mechanical  and  philosophical  deductions. 

Being  on  ship-board  in  the  year  1757,  an  accident  gave  him  occasion 
to  observe  the  wonderful  effect  of  oil,  in  stilling  the  waves  of  the  sea. 
He  immediately  determined  to  make  experiments  to  elucidate  this  new 
property  of  oil,  which  he  did  with  success ;  and  the  philosophical  world 
is  indebted  to  him  for  being  now  fully  acquainted  with  a  fact,  which, 
although  not  unknown  to  Plutarch  and  Pliny,  was  for  ages  past  known 
only  among  the  Dutch  fishermen,  and  a  few  seamen  of  other  nations. 

His  inquiries  and  discoveries  were  confined  to  no  limits  or  subjects. 
Through  all  the  elements :  In  the  fire  and  in  the  -water,  in  the  air,  and 
in  the  earth,  he  sought  for  and  he  found  new  and  beneficial  hiowledge. 

He  discovered  that  unaccountable  agitation  of  the  two  surfaces  in 
contact,  when  a  quantity  of  oil  floats  on  water  in  a  vessel. 

He  found  the  pulse-glass  in  Germany,  and  introduced  it  into  Eng- 
land, with  improvements  of  his  own. 

He  discovered  that  equal  and  congenial  bodies  acquired  different  de- 
grees of  heat  from  the  sun's  rays,  according  to  their  different  colors. 

His  improvements  in  chimnies,  stoves,  etc.,  have  been  already 
noticed. 


I791]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  34* 

He  made  experiments  to  show,  that  boats  are  drawn  with  more  diffi- 
culty in  small  canals,  than  in  greater  bodies  of  water. 

He  made  and  published  experiments  for  improving  the  art  of  swim- 
ming, and  for  allaying  thirst  by  bathing  in  sea-water. 

He  published  observations  on  the  gradual  progress  of'  northeast 
storms  along  the  American  coasts,  contrary  to  the  direction  of  the 
wind  :  and  likewise  to  ascertain  the  course,  velocity,  and  temperature 
of  the  Gulf-stream,  for  the  benefit  of  navigation. 

He  contrived  experiments,  and  recommended  them  to  the  late  Dr. 
Ingenhauz,  for  determining  the  relative  powers  of  different  metals  for 
conducting  heat,  which  were  accordingly  made. 

He  revived  and  improved  the  harmonica,  or  glassichord,  and  extended 
his  speculations  to  the  finer  arts ;  showing  that  he  could  taste  and 
criticise  even  the  compositions  of  a  Handel  ! 

He  left  behind  him  some  very  curious  thoughts  and  conjectures  con- 
cerning "  an  universal  fluid;  the  original  formation  of  the  earth  ;  and 
how  far,  from  attentive  observations  made  during  the  summer,  it  may 
be  possible  to  foretell  the  mildness  or  severity  of  the  following  winter." 
These  were  the  fruits  of  some  of  his  leisure  hours  at  Passy,  during  his 
ministry  at  the  court  of  France,  where  his  time  in  general  was  devoted, 
with  the  greatest  dignity,  and  the  most  splendid  success,  to  the  political 
objects  of  his  mission. 

That  success  was  much  promoted  by  the  high  reputation  which  he 
sustained,  as  a  patriot  and  philosopher,  among  the  patriots  and  philoso- 
phers of  a  generous  and  enlightened  nation.  Of  this  the  fullest  testi- 
mony is  to  be  found  in  the  letters  of  condolence  on  his  death,*  from 
the  national  assembly  of  that  country,  to  the  President  and  Congress  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  the  public  mourning  decreed  on  that  occasion — 
an  honor,  perhaps  the  first  of  the  kind  which  has  ever  been  paid  by  a 
public  body  of  one  nation  to  a  citizen  of  another.  But  all  nations 
considered  themselves  as  being  interested  in  him,  and  the  homage  was 
therefore  more  justly  due  to  his  manes  and  his  name  ! 

Dr.  Franklin,  having  taken  leave  of  the  court  of  France,  left  Passy 
on  the  12th  of  July,  and  arrived  at  Philadelphia,  the  13th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1785,  where  he  was  welcomed  with  joy  by  his  fellow-citizens  of  all 
classes  j  and,  in  testimony  of  their  heartfelt  sense  of  his  eminent  vir- 
tues and  past  services,  he  was  unanimously  elected  by  them  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  commonwealth,  for  the  three  succeeding  years;  being 
the  longest  term  which  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania  then  allowed. 
During  that  term,  he  was  also  appointed  a  member  of  the  general  con- 
vention, for  forming  and  establishing  a  constitution  for  the  United  States 

*  The  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  made  him  acquainted  with  the  celebrated  Turgot, 
who  wrote  the  memorable  motto  under  his  portrait : 
"  Fripuit  Ccelo  fulmen,  mox  sceptra  Tyrannis." 


342  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \M9^ 

of  America;  and  on  the  18th  of  September,  1787,  that  illustrious  body 
having  concluded  their  labors,  Dr.  Franklin,  in  conjunction  with  his 
colleagues  of  Pennsylvania,  presented  the  result  of  the  same,  to  the 
Speaker  and  House  of  Representatives : 

Sir  :  I  have  the  very  great  satisfaction  of  delivering  to  yon  and  to  this  honorable 
house,  the  result  of  our  deliberations  in  the  late  convention.  We  hope  and  believe  that 
the  measures  recommended  by  that  body,  will  produce  happy  effects  to  this  common- 
wealth, as  well  as  to  every  other  of  the  United  States. 

He  then  presented,  at  the  speaker's  chair,  the  Constitution,  agreed  to  in 
convention,  for  the  government  of  the  United  States.  The  remainder 
of  his  term  of  office  in  the  government,  he  devoted  to  the  wise  and 
prudent  administration  of  its  duties;  so  far  as  the  growing  infirmities  of 
his  years,  and  the  painful  disorder  with  which  he  had  been  long  afflicted, 
would  permit.  During  the  most  excruciating  paroxysms  of  that  dis- 
order, he  strove  to  conceal  his  pain,  that  he  might  not  give  pain  to 
those  around  him;  and  he  would  often  say,  that  he  felt  the  greatest 
alleviation  of  his  own  pains,  in  the  occasions  which  were  offered  him 
of  doing  good  to  others ;  and  which  he  never  neglected  to  the  latest 
moments  of  his  life. 

One  of  the  last  public  acts  in  which  he  was  concerned,  was  to  sanc- 
tion with  his  name  the  memorial  presented  to  the  general  government 
of  the  United  States,  on  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade,  by  the  "  Penn- 
sylvania society  for  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  relief 
of  free  negroes,  unlawfully  held  in  bondage."  Of  this  society,  he  was 
president;  and  the  institution  and  design  of  it  could  not  but  be  con- 
genial to  the  soul  of  a  man,  whose  life  and  labors  had  been  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  liberty,  for  more  than  half  a  century;  ardently  striving  to 
extend  its  blessings  to  every  part  of  the  human  species,  and  particularly 
to  such  of  his  fellow-creatures,  as,  being  entitled  to  freedom,  are  never- 
theless, injuriously  enslaved,  or  detained  in  bondage,  by  fraud  or 
violence. 

It  was  not  his  desire,  however,  to  propagate  liberty  by  the  violation 
of  public  justice  or  private  rights ;  nor  to  countenance  the  operation  of 
principles  or  tenets  among  any  class  or  association  of  citizens,  incon- 
sistent with,  or  repugnant  to,  the  civil  compact,  which  should  unite  and 
bind  the  whole;  but  he  looked  forward  to  that  sera  of  civilized  human- 
ity, when,  in  consistence  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it 
may  be  hoped,  there  shall  not  be  a  slave  within  their  jurisdiction  or 
territory !  Nay,  he  looked  more  forward  still,  to  the  time  when  there 
shall  not  be  a  slave  nor  a  savage,  within  the  whole  regions  of  America. 
He  believed  that  this  sublime  sera  had  already  dawned,  and  was  ap- 
proaching fast  to  its  meridian  glory;  for  he  believed  in  Divine  Revela- 
tion, and  the  beautiful  analogy  of  history,  sacred  as  well  as  profane  ! 
He  believed  that  human  knowledge,  however  improved  and  exalted, 


I791]  REV-    WILLIAM   SMITH,  D.  D.  343 

stood  in  need  of  illumination  from  on  high ;  and  that  the  Divine 
Creator  has  not  left  mankind  without  such  illumination,  and  evidence 
of  himself,  both  internal  and  external,  as  may  be  necessary  to  their 
present  and  future  happiness. 

If  I  could  not  speak  this  from  full  and  experimental  knowledge  of 
his  character,  I  should  have  considered  all  the  other  parts  of  it,  how- 
ever splendid  and  beneficial  to  the  world,  as  furnishing  but  scanty 
materials  for  the  present  eulogium. 

An  undevout  philosopher  is  mad. — Young. 

The  man  who  can  think  so  meanly  of  his  own  soul,  as  to  believe  that  it 
was  created  to  animate  a  piece  of  clay,  for  a  few  years,  and  then  to  be 
extinguished  and  exist  no  more,  can  never  be  a  great  man  !  But  Frank- 
lin felt  and  believed  himself  immortal !  His  vast  and  capacious  soul  was 
ever  stretching  beyond  this  narrow  sphere  of  things,  and  grasping  an 
eternity  !  Hear  himself,  "  although  dead,  yet  speaking  "  on  this  awfully 
delightful  subject  !  Behold  here,  in  his  own  hand-writing,  the  indubit- 
able testimony  !  In  this  temple  of  God,  and  before  this  august  assem- 
bly, I  read  the  contents,  and  consecrate  the  precious  relic  to  his 
memory  !  It  is  his  letter  of  condolence  to  his  niece,  on  the  death  of 
his  brother ;  and  may  be  applied  as  a  fit  conclusion  of  our  present  con- 
dolences on  his  own  death  : 

We  have  lost  a  most  dear  and  valuable  relation  (and  friend) — But,  'tis  the  will  of 
God  that  these  mortal  bodies  be  laid  aside  when  the  soul  is  to  enter  into  real  life. 
Existing  here  is  scarce  to  be  called  life;  it  is  rather  an  embryo  state,  a  preparative  to 
living;  and  man  is  not  completely  born  till  he  is  dead.  Why,  then,  should  we  grieve 
that  a  new  child  is  born  among  the  immortals,  a  new  member  added  to  their  happy 
society? 

We  are  spirits  ! — That  bodies  should  be  lent  while  they  can  afford  us  pleasure,  as- 
sist us  in  acquiring  knowledge,  or  doing  good  to  our  fellow-creatures,  is  a  kind  and 
benevolent  act  of  God.  When  they  become  unfit  for  these  purposes,  and  afford  us 
pain  instead  of  pleasure,  instead  of  an  aid  become  an  incumbrance,  and  answer  none 
of  the  intentions  for  which  they  were  given,  it  is  equally  kind  and  benevolent  that  a 
way  is  provided,  by  which  we  may  get  rid  of  them — Death  is  that  way:  we  ourselves 
prudently  choose  a  partial  death,  in  some  cases.  A  mangled,  painful  limb,  which  can- 
not be  restored,  we  willingly  cut  oft".  He  who  plucks  out  a  tooth,  parts  with  it  freely, 
since  the  pain  goes  with  it ;  and  he  that  quits  the  whole  body,  parts  at  once  with  all  the 
pains,  and  possibilities  of  pains  and  pleasures,  it  was  liable  to,  or  capable  of  making 
him  suffer. 

Our  friend  and  we  are  invited  abroad  on  a  party  of  pleasure,  that  is  to  last  forever. 
His  chair  was  first  ready,  and  he  is  gone  before  us.  We  could  not  all  conveniently 
start  together;  and  why  should  you  and  I  be  grieved  at  this,  since  we  are  soon  to  fol- 
low, and  we  know  where  to  find  him. 

Yes,  thou  dear  departed  friend  and  fellow-citizen  !  Thou,  too,  art 
gone  before  us — thy  chair,  thy  celestial  car,  was  first  ready  !  We  must 
soon  follow,  and  we  know  where  to  find  thee  !  May  we  seek  to  follow 
thee  by  lives  of  virtue  and  benevolence  like  thine — then  shall  we  surely 


344  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [179I 

find  thee — and  part  with  thee  no  more,  forever  !  Let  all  thy  fellow- 
citizens;  let  all  thy  compatriots;  let  every  class  of  men  with  whom 
thou  wert  associated  here  on  earth — in  devising  plans  of  government, 
in  framing  and  executing  good  laws,  in  disseminating  useful  knowledge, 
in  alleviating  human  misery,  and  in  promoting  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind— let  them  consider  thee  as  their  guardian-genius,  still  present  and 
presiding  amongst  them ;  and  what  they  conceive  thou  wouldst  advise 
to  be  done,  let  them  advise  and  do  likewise — and  they  shall  not  greatly 
deviate  from  the  path  of  virtue  and  glory  ! 

I  hope  that  I  make  no  reflection  upon  my  ancestor,  nor  any,  not 
merited,  upon  Dr.  Franklin,  when  in  connection  with  this  eulogy 
I  mention  a  little  anecdote  de  famille.  At  the  conclusion  of  the 
eulogy,  which  was  delivered  in  Dr.  Smith's  best  style,  every  one 
was  crowding  him  to  offer  to  him  congratulations  upon  the  success 
of  his  effort.  When  he  got  home,  his  daughter  Rebecca — the 
one  whom  I  have  described  in  Volume  I.*  as  the  inspiring  sub- 
ject of  Gilbert  Stuart's  divine  pencil,  and  whose  wit  was  equal  to 
her  beauty — was  there  to  greet  him.  "  Well,  my  daughter,"  said 
the  Doctor,  "  I  saw  you  seated  among  the  magnates  at  the  church. 
You  heard  me,  I  suppose?"  "Oh,  yes,"  said  the  girl,  "I  was 
there  and  heard  every  word."  "And  how  did  you  like  the 
eulogy,  let  me  ask?"  said  the  Doctor.  "Oh,  papa,"  said  the 
daughter,  looking  archly  into  her  father's  face,  "  it  was  beautiful, 
very  beautiful,  indeed;  only — papa  —  only — only — "  "Only 
what?"  replied  the  Doctor.  "Only — papa — now  you  wont  be 
offended — will  you  ?  I  don't  think  you  believed  more  than  one- 
tenth  part  of  what  you  said  of  old  Ben  Lightning-rod.  Did 
you  ?"  The  Doctor,  without  either  affirming  or  denying,  laughed 
heartily.  If  he  had  spoken,  he  would  probably  have  said  :  "  My 
dear  daughter,  I  was  invited  to  pronounce  an  eulogy,  not  to  ana- 
lyze and  describe  a  very  complex  character.  In  such  a  case  you 
must  make  a  picture  which  shall  owe  its  effects  to  the  skilful 
handling  of  lights ;  not  one  which  shall  have  the  truth  which 
numerous  and  deep  shades  would  give  it.  I  have  done  that  for 
which  I  was  appointed,  and  that  which  I  was  expected  to  do. 
The  dead  can  never  vindicate  nor  defend  themselves.  Therefore, 
of  them,  is  given  the  counsel,  nil  nisi  bonutn" 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  by  anything  that  I  say  above  or  by 

*  Page  472. 


T/91]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  345 

the  insertion  of  this  pleasant  memorandum  about  Dr.  Smith,  to 
imply  anything  like  want  of  sincerity  on  the  part  of  my  progen- 
itor. In  the  course  of  their  long  opposition  to  each  other  in  the 
politics  of  Provincial  Pennsylvania,  Dr.  Smith  had  dealt  some 
heavy  blows  at  Franklin  ;  no  man  heavier  ones.  I  am  quite  ready 
to  believe  that  now  that  the  grave  had  closed  over  the  remains  of 
one  who  had  been  his  earliest  friend  in  Pennsylvania  and  in  his 
latest  years  had  not  been  his  enemy,  he  desired  to  make  even 
more  than  reparation  for  unintentional  injustice,  if  injustice,  which 
I  do  not  believe,  had  ever  been  done. 

In  a  note  to  this  eulogy  in  Maxwell's  edition  of  his  works,  Dr. 
Smith  meant  apparently  to  give  to  others,  including  Jefferson  and 
Rush — par  fratrum — the  responsibility  of  some  things  which  he 
would,  perhaps,  as  a  clerical  character,  have  hardly  been  willing 
to  assume  for  himself.  Specifying  by  page  the  contributions  of 
each,  he  says,  as  follows  : 

The  assistance  derived  by  the  author  in  the  composition  of  the  fol- 
lowing Eulogium,  from  the  friendly  communications  of  some  of  his 
learned  colleagues,  among  the  officers  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Societv,  requires  his  public  acknowledgments  to  be  made  to  them,  viz. : 

To  David  Rittenhouse,  Esq.,  LL.  D.,  president  of  the  society,  for 
sundry  papers,  which  have  been  digested  into  the  account  of  Dr.  Frank- 
lin's electrical  and  philosophical  discoveries,  from  page  64  to  71.* 

To  Thomas  Jefferson,  Esq.,  FL.  D.,  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of 
the  society,  and  secretary  of  the  United  States,  for  his  letter,  concern- 
ing Dr.  Franklin's  ministry  at  the  court  of  France,  pages  75  to  77. 

To  Jonathan  Williams,  Esq.,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  society, 
for  the  original  letter,  pages  80,  81  ;  and  some  papers  in  the  appendix. 

To  Benjamin  Rush,  M.  D.,  one  of  the  council  of  the  society,  for 
some  sketches  of  Dr.  Franklin's  character,  of  which  the  author  has 
availed  himself,  page  50. 

Dr.  Franklin  had  been  elected  President  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  in  1769,  and  held  the  position  until  his  death, 
Dr.  Smith  being  one  of  the  Secretaries  during  the  whole  period. 
In  the  latter  years  of  his  life  many  of  the  meetings  were  held  at 
Franklin's  house,  in  a  court  running  south  from  Market  street 
between  Third  and  Fourth.  Dr.  Franklin  was  succeeded  by 
David  Rittenhouse,  elected  January  7th,  1791,  who  also  remained 

*  The  reference  in  this  extract  to  pages  is  to  the  pages  in  Maxwell's  edition  of  Dr. 
Smith's  works. 


34^  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  Ql  791 

in  office  until  his  death,  June  26th,  1796.  He  was  succeeded  by- 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  was  elected  January  6th,  1797,  and  con- 
tinued until  his  resignation  in  18 15. 

The  eulogy  has  been  printed  several  times  ;  first  by  order  of  the 
society  before  which  it  was  pronounced  by  Franklin's  grandson, 
Benjamin  Franklin  Bache.  It  is  also  found  in  Maxwell's  edition 
of  Dr.  Smith's  works  printed  in  1803.  In  that  edition  Dr.  Smith 
appends  the  following  memorandum  : 

While  this  Eulogium  was  originally  in  the  press,  the  following  verses, 
beautifully  poetical  and  descriptive  of  the  character  of  Dr.  Franklin, 
were  found  on  the  writing-desk  of  my  study;  but  whether  dropped 
there  by  some  one  of  the  nine  muses,  or  by  what  mortal  favorite  of 
theirs,  I  could  not  then  learn.  They  were  accompanied  with  a  request, 
that  they  might  be  annexed  to  the  Eulogium  ;  but  apprehending  that 
the  publisher,  Mr.  Bache,  who  was  Dr.  Franklin's  grandson,  might 
think  it  indecent  in  him  to  give  circulation  to  the  last  two  stanzas, 
however  much  he  might  approbate  the  first  three ;  they  were  suppressed 
at  that  time,  and  from  a  persuasion  also,  that,  at  a  future  day,  they 
might  more  easily  be  endured  by  the  warmest  of  Dr.  Franklin's  sur- 
viving friends. 

The  verses  were  found  in  the  handwriting  of  my  dear  wife,  and  not 
recollecting,  at  that  time,  ever  to  have  seen  or  read  them,  and  asking 
from  what  original  she  had  copied  them,  she  laughed,  as  I  thought,  at 
the  scantiness  of  my  reading  on  a  subject  so  recent  as  the  death  of  Dr. 
Franklin,  whose  panegyrist  I  had  been  appointed,  by  a  grave  society  of 
philosophers.  I  replied,  with  a  mixture  of  a  little  raillery  in  my  turn, 
that  if  she  would  not  satisfy  me  respecting  the  author  of  the  verses,  or 
from  what  source  she  had  copied  them,  I  should  consider  myself  as 
happily  yoked  to  a  very  good  poetess,  and  ascribe  the  composition  to 
herself,  unless  clubbed  between  her,  and  her  dear  friend,  Mrs.  Ferguson. 
I  knew  either  of  them  to  be  capable  of  the  work,  and  from  the  spirit, 
wit  and  manner  of  it,  as  well  as  from  frequent  hints  in  their  conversa- 
tion, concerning  Dr.  Franklin,  whose  genius  and  talents  they  both  ad- 
mired, I  knew  also  that  the  last  two  stanzas,  as  well  as  first  three  ac- 
corded well  with  their  sentiments.  I  have  discovered  lately,  by  means 
of  my  worthy  friend,  Benj.  R.  Morgan,  Esq.,  that  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Odell,  formerly  Missionary  at  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  and  now  Secre- 
tary of  the  British  Province  of  New  Brunswick  was  the  real  author.  I 
had  indeed  suspected  him  to  be  so,  and  questioned  him  accordingly 
(for  he  dined  at  my  house  that  day),  but  it  seems  that  he  joined  with 
the  ladies  to  keep  me  in  suspense,  and  in  conveying  a  satirical  hint,  by 
means  of  the  verses,  that  I  was  a  very  warm  panegyrist : 


I79l]  KEV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  347 

Like  Newton  sublimely  he  soar'd 

To  a  summit  before  unattained  ; 
New  regions  of  science  explor'J 

And  the  palm  of  philosophy  gained. 

With  a  spark  that  he  caught  from  the  skies, 

He  display'd  an  unparallel'd  wonder, 
And  we  saw,  with  delight  and  surprise 

That  his  rod  could  protect  us  from  thunder. 

Oh !  had  he  been  wise  to  pursue 

The  path  which  his  talents  design'd, 
What  a  tribute  of  praise  had  been  due. 

To  the  teacher  and  friend  of  mankind! 

But  to  covet  political  fame 

Was  in  him  a  degrading  ambition  ; 
A  spark  which  from  Lucifer  came, 

Enkindled  the  blaze  of  sedition. 

Let  candor  then  write  on  his  urn — 

"  Here  lies  the  renowned  inventor, 
Whose  flame  to  the  skies  ought  to  burn, 

But  inverted,  descends  to  the  centre  I" 


CHAPTER  LV. 

Dr.  Smith  appointed  by  the  Masonic  Order  of  Pennsylvania  to  Prepare 
an  Address  to  President  Washington,  which  hf.  does — He  Receives  an 
Answer  from  the  President — Dr.  Smith  to  Jonathan  Williams,  Esq. — 
Marriage  of  Dr.  Smith's  Daughter,  Rebecca,  with  Mr.  Samuel  Blod- 
get,  of  Boston — Mrs.  Cadwalader  to  Mrs.  Ridgely,  giving  an  Account 
of  the  Wedding,  etc. — Consecration  of  Bishop  Claggett,  of  Maryland, 
in  Trinity  Church,  New  York — Dr.  Smith  Preaches  at  the  Consecra- 
tion— Extracts  from  the  Sermon — The  Convention  of  1792 — Orders 
an  Address  on  the  subject  of  Domestic  Missions — An  Address  Prepared 
— Signed  by  Dr.  Smith — Authorship  Uncertain. 

Ox  St.  John's  Day,  the  27th  of  December,  1791,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Masonic  Grand  Lodge  of  Pennsylvania,  Dr.  Smith  and 
the  worshipful  grand  officers  were  appointed  a  Committee  to  pre- 
pare aa  address  to  the  illustrious  Brother  George  Washington, 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  they  were  requested  to  report. 
Dr.  Smith,  at  the  next  meeting,  presented  the  following  address, 
which  was  adopted  and  forwarded  : 

January  2d,  ]  792. 
To  George  Washington,  President  of  the  United  States: 

Sir  and  Brother:   The  Ancient  York  Masons  of  the  jurisdiction  of 

Pennsylvania,  for  the  first  time  assembled  in  General  Communication  to 


348  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \}79^ 

celebrate  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  since  your  election  to 
the  chair  of  government  of  the  United  States,  beg  leave  to  approach 
you  with  congratulations  from  the  east,  and,  in  the  pride  of  fraternal 
affection,  to  hail  you  as  the  great  master  builder  (under  the  Supreme 
Architect)  by  whose  labors  the  temple  of  liberty  hath  been  reared  in  the 
west,  exhibiting  to  the  nations  of  the  earth  a  model  of  beauty,  order 
and  harmony  worthy  of  their  imitation  and  praise.  Your  knowledge  of 
the  origin  and  objects  of  our  institution — its  tendency  to  promote  the 
social  affections  and  harmonize  the  heart — give  us  a  sure  pledge  that 
this  tribute  of  our  veneration,  this  effusion  of  love,  will  not  be  ungrate- 
ful to  you  ;  nor  will  Heaven  reject  our  prayer,  that  you  may  be  long- 
continued  to  adorn  the  bright  list  of  master  workmen,  which  our  Fra- 
ternity produces  in  the  terrestrial  lodge ;  and  that  you  may  be  late 
removed  to  that  celestial  lodge  where  love  and  harmony  reign  tran- 
scendent and  divine,  where  the  great  Architect  more  immediately  pre- 
sides, and  where  cherubim  and  seraphim,  wafting  our  congratulations 
from  earth  to  heaven,  shall  hail  you  brother. 

By  order  and  in  behalf  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Pennsylvania  in  Gen- 
eral Communication  assembled  in  ample  form. 

Signed  by  the  Grand  Master  and  officers. 

"  Dr.  Smith,"  so  says  Hayden,  in  "  Washington  and  his  Ma- 
sonic Compeers,"  "  delivered  this  address  in  person."  On  the 
5th  of  the  following  March,  Dr.  Smith  reports  to  the  Grand 
Lodge  the  following  reply  from  the  President : 

To  the  Ancient  York  Masons  of  the  jurisdiction  of  Pennsylvania: 

Gentlemen  and  Brothers  :  I  received  your  kind  congratulation  with 
the  purest  sensations  of  fraternal  affection  ;  and  from  a  heart  deeply 
impressed  with  your  generous  wishes  for  my  present  and  future  happi- 
ness, I  beg  you  to  accept  my  thanks. 

At  the  same  time  I  request  you  will  be  assured  of  my  best  wishes  and 
earnest  prayers  for  your  happiness  while  you  remain  in  this  terrestrial 
mansion,  and  that  we  may  hereafter  meet  as  brethren  in  the  celestial 
temple  of  the  Supreme  Architect.*  George  Washington. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1792,  there  were  elected  into  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  a  number  of  foreigners  in  .a  body 
— Count  Paul  Andreani,  of  Milan  ;  Rudolph  Vall-T ravers,  of  Ham- 
burg; Anthony  Renatus,  Charles  M.  de  la  Forest,  Joseph  Ceracchi, 
of  Rome,  a  sculptor,  but  not  a  philosopher,  nor  indeed  a  man  of 
the  highest  character  in  all  things;    Palisot  de  Beauvois,  etc.     I 

*The  original  of  this  letter  is  in  the  Temple  at  Philadelphia.  It  is  addressed  to  Wil- 
liam Moore  Smith,  Esq.,  who  was  at  that  time  Grand  Master  of  Pennsylvania. — H.  W.  S. 


1792]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  349 

am  mot  able  to  say  whether  it  was  owing  to  some  dissatisfaction 
about  the  election  of  one  or  more  of  these  persons,  or  some  cir- 
cumstances connected  with  the  mode  of  announcing  the  election 
of  officers,  that  we  find  the  following  rather  distinct  sort  of  letter 
from  Dr.  Smith  to  Mr.  Williams,  a  member  of  the  society,  related 
to  Dr.  Franklin,  the  president,  lately  deceased: 

Dr.  Smith  to  Jonathan  Williams,  Esq. 

Philadelphia,  February  5,  1792. 

Sir:  You  had  yesterday  my  determination  about  signing  the. certifi- 
cates: it  was  that  I  could  not  sign  them  till  my  objections  were  heard 
at  a  meeting  of  the  society.  The  Rules  require  that  certificates  shall  be 
signed  by  all  the  officers.  I  am  sorry  fc.r  the  delay,  and  if  the  secre- 
taries will  take  it  upon  themselves  to  issue  the  certificates  without  my 
name,  rather  than  wait  till  the  next  meeting  of  the  society,  they  may 
have  them  for  that  purpose.  Whatever  Rules  may  be  made  at  the  next 
meeting,  or  whatever  may  be  found  to  have  been  the  general  usage,  I 
shall  submit  to,  or  else  I  shall  resign  my  appointment,  that  there  may  be 
no  delays  nor  debates  on  my  account  in  conducting  the  affairs  of  the 
society,  of  which  I  was  one  of  the  original  founders  and  for  whose  honor 
and  success  I  have  long  exerted  myself.  Whether  the  order  of  sub- 
scribing be  according  to  seniority  in  office,  or  the  form  of  return  at 
election,  according  to  the  number  of  votes,  in  either  case  the  present 
mode  of  signing  the  certificates  sent  to  me  is  wrong. 

I  should,  however,  have  taken  no  notice  at  present  of  the  thing  if  you 
had  not  told  me  that  you  were  blamed  for  the  manner  of  publishing  the 
names  of  the  officers  according  to  the  number  of  votes  at  the  last 
election,  and  that  one  of  the  vice-presidents  had  said  that  he  would  not 
subscribe  unless  his  name  stood  first.  I  know  not  on  what  his  preten- 
sions are  founded,  but  I  am  sure  neither  on  rule  or  usage ;  and  I  cannot 
imagine  that  the  secretaries  of  the  society,  upon  any  private  conference 
among  themselves,  had  a  right  to  determine  this  point.  If  there  be  a 
special  meeting  on  this  business,  the  nature  of  it  and  the  reasons  for 
calling  it  must  be  set  forth  in  the  notices.  If  you  think  proper,  I  will 
wait  upon  you  at  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  to-morrow,  concerning  the  special 
meeting,  or  send  the  two  certificates  signed  by  myself  in  the  present 
order,  provided  that  it  be  not  made  a  precedent,  and  the  other  certifi- 
cates may  remain  until  some  amicable  order  shall  be  taken  at  next 
stated  meeting. 

I  beg  you  to  retain  this  in  your  hands  until  I  have  the  pleasure  of 

seeing  you. 

I  am,  with  great  regard,  your  obedient  servant, 

William  Smith. 
To  Jonathan  Williams,  Esq. 


35°  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [*792 

On  the  IOth  of  May,  1792,  Rebecca,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Smith, 
of  whom  we  spoke  a  little  way  back,  was  married,  by  Bishop 
White,  to  Samuel  Blodget,  Esq.,  of  Boston.*  A  letter  which  fol- 
lows will  be  of  more  interest,  I  fancy,  to  my  readers  of  the  fair 
sex — if  any  such  I  shall  have — than  all  other  things  which,  up  to 
this  time,  I  have  given.  And  why  shall  such  readers  not  be  some- 
times gratified  even  in  the  preparation  of  a  life  of  a  Provost  and  a 
Doctor  of  Divinity?  I  leave  my  said  fair  readers  of  course  to 
translate  any  French  word  in  the  letter  for  themselves,  hoping 
only  that  meanings  of  some  of  them  in  the  year  1792  were  not 
identical  with  meanings  in  1880: 

Mrs,  Williamina  Cadwalader  to  Mrs.  Ridgely. 

Philadelphia,  June  20,  1792. 
My  Dear  Aunt:  What  shall  I  say  to  the  girls  about  the  bride,  Becky 
Smith's  dress.  She  was  dressed  in  a  sprig'd  muslin  chemist,  and  wore 
a  bonnet  with  a  curtain.  The  young  ladies,  her  bridesmaids,  had  also 
on  chemises,  but  their  hats  ornamented.  Did  I  write  you  that  Miss 
Ann  Hamilton,  Miss  Meade,  and  Miss  Keppele  were  her  attendants; 
and  that  she  left  town  the  Saturday  following,  and  saw  nobody  on 
Friday.  There  was  great  propriety  both  in  her  behavior  and  in  all 
other  respects.  Every  thing  was  as  it  ought  to  be,  without  any  affecta- 
tion or  parade.  For  our  sweet  girls  I  can  only  tell  you,  that  they  were 
the  most  interesting  creatures  I  ever  saw,  and  that  they  were  dressed  in 
white  muslin,  without  any  thing  on  their  heads  but  a  white  ribbon  run 
through  the  hair.  There  was  a  monstrous  company — forty-seven  people 
— at  supper.  That  was  perfectly  elegant  in  every  respect,  and  not  even 
a  whisper  or  joke  that  could  have  raised  a  blush  in  a  vestal.  The  young 
men's  delicacy  and  propriety  to  their  wives  charmed  me.  They  did  not 
venture  to  speak  or  look  at  them  the  whole  evening  any  further  than 
that,  Archibald  McCall  spoke  to  Betsy,  and  Tom  Ringold  to  Maria. 
They  had  not  seen  them  for  ten  days  before  the  wedding.   .   .  . 

Yours  affectionately, 

W.  Cadwalader. 
To  Mrs.  Ann  Ridgely,  near  Dover. 

But  we  must  pass  from  gay  subjects  to  such  grave  ones  as  are 
appropriate  to  our  pen. 

In  1792  was  held  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  another  Gen- 
eral Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  church  of  Rhode 
Island — the  last  of  the  churches  of  the   New  England   States  to 

*  For  an  account  of  Samuel  Blodget,  Esq.,  see  Appendix,  No.  VII. 


352  LIFE    AXD    CORRESPOXDEXCE    OF    THE  [j792 

American  bishops  was  here  the  case,  through  the  blended  lines 
of  Scotland  and  England. 

Dr.  Smith  was  invited  to  preach  the  consecration  sermon,  a  high 
compliment  to  him,  indeed — with  the  presence  of  Seabury  and 
White,  and  Provoost  and  Madison,  all  of  them  of  a  higher  grade 
of  orders — to  ask  of  him  to  deliver  the  solemn  charge  needed  by 
the  occasion. 

His  text  was  those  verses  from  St.  Paul's  Second  Epistle  to 
Timothy,  chapter  iv.,  verses  I,  5,  so  often  preached  from  upon 
like  occasions,  but  still  ever  affording  a  theme  for  new  interest 
when  handled  by  a  man  of  the  abilities  of  Dr.  Smith. 

I  charge  thee  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  Quick  and 
the  Dead,  at  his  Appearing,  and  his  Kingdom — Preach  the  Word  :  Be  instant  in 
Season,  out  of  Season ;  Reprove,  Rebuke,  Exhort  with  all  Long-Suffering  and 
Doctrine. 

For  the  Time  will  come,  when  they  will  not  endure  sound  Doctrine ;  but,  after  their 
own  Lusts,  shall  they  Heap  to  themselves  Teachers  having  Itching  Ears.  And  they 
shall  turn  away  their  Ears  from  the  Truth,  and  shall  be  turned  unto  Fables. 

But  Watch  thou  in  all  things  ;  Endure  Afflictions  ;  Do  the  work  of  an  Evangelist ; 
Make  full  Proof  cf  thy  Ministry. 

He  thus  begins: 

Right  Reverend    Fathers,  Reverend   Brethren,  and  '  Respected 
Fellow-Citizens,  here  assembled  : 

While,  in  one  point  of  view,  I  consider  the  Nature  of  the  Holy- 
Solemnity  and  Work,  upon  which  we  are  abaut  to  enter,  and  feel,  as  I 
do,  the  Weight  of  the  Part  assigned  to  Me  en  the  occasion ;  I  might 
well  be  deterred  in  looking  forward  to  my  task  !  But,  in  another  point 
of  glorious  view,  I  am  encouraged  to  proceed,  when  I  consider  that  I 
have  an  Apostle,  even  St.  Paul,  the  Prince  of  Apostles,  as  my  leader  and 
guide.  For  his  second  Epistle  to  Timothy,  from  which  my  text  is 
taken,  is  nothing  else  but  a  Solemn  Charge,  and  one  of  the  first  recorded 
in  the  Annals  of  Christianity — applying,  at  all  times,  and  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, to  every  Preacher  of  the  Gospel,  of  every  rank  and  denomi- 
nation— Ministers,  Pastors,  Elders,  Bishops — by  whatsoever  name  they 
may  wish  to  be  called  ! 

Thus  guided  and  supported,  I  rise  with  some  degree  of  Confidence; 
animated,  rather  than  deterred,  by  the  Venerable,  but  Indulgent,  Pres- 
ence of  my  clerical  Brethren  and  Fathers;  likewise  by  the  joyful  at- 
tendance, the  exulting  expectations,  of  the  Lay  Members  of  our  own 
Church,  on  an  occasion  so  long  desired,  so  devoutly  prayed  for  by 
them,  as  the  present;  together  with  the  appearance  of  such  a  crowded 
Audience,   of  various   other  denominations  of  professing   Christians; 


1792]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  353 

drawn  together,  many  no  doubt  for  Instruction  ;  others,  perhaps,  from 
Curiosity,  to  witness  a  new  scene  in  America,  namely:  the  First  Con- 
secration of  a  Bishop  for  a  Protestant  Church  by  an  authority  within 
itself  acknowledged  to  be  valid,  and  sufficient  to  relieve  it  from  any 
future  necessity  of  sending  its  young  candidates  for  the  ministry  across 
a  vast  ocean  for  receiving  holy  orders. 

Therefore,  thus  guided  and  supported  in  my  part  of  the  duty,  I  rise 
not  only  with  some  degree  of  confidence,  but  even  with  full  hopes,  from 
the  long  experienced  candor  and  indulgence  of  my  brethren  in  the 
ministry,  that  where  I  may  fall  short  of  their  expectations,  it  will  be 
ascribed  to  the  true  cause,  want  of  ability,  rather  than  want  of  zeal,  or 
earnest  endeavors  to  do  better,  were  it  in  my  power. 

To  proceed,  then,  my  first  address  should  be  to  you,  my  venerable 
brother,  elected  for  the  office  of  a  bishop.  A  long  acquaintance  and  a 
happy  intercourse  with  you,  in  the  exchange  of  good  offices  for  the 
support  of  our  church,  and  for  strengthening  the  hands  of  our  brethren 
in  the  ministry,  during  my  residence  of  eight  or  nine  years  in  the  State 
of  Maryland,  as  well  as  other  good  considerations,  render  it  unneces- 
sarv  for  me  to  say  much  on  this  part  of  my  subject. 

Of  what  concerns  the  duties  of  a  bishop,  or  a  chief  pastor,  St.  Paul's 
Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus  have  been  always  considered  as  the  true 
primitive  uncorrupted  depositary;  nay,  indeed,  the  luminous  source 
of  instruction  to  all  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  at  all  times  and  under  all 
circumstances,  as  already  suggested. 

The  preacher  then  made  a  paraphrase  of  part  of  the  Second 
Epistle  to  Timothy,  from  which  the  text  is  taken,  and  which,  he 
says,  was  written  under  peculiar  circumstances,  "near  the  close  of 
St.  Paul's  life,  when  he  was  a  prisoner  and  in  bonds  at  Rome — 
called  in  question  for  the  faith  of  Christ,  before  the  cruel  Nero,  at 
a  time,  too,  when  he  saw  persecutions  springing  up  from  without, 
and  divisions,  heresies  and  corruptions  from  within  the  church; 
and  lastly,  at  a  time  when  he  saw  and  believed  that  his  own  de- 
parture, or  dissolution  from  the  body,  was  near  at  hand ; "  he 
therefore  directs  this  last  and  parting  charge,  as  a  legacy  of  spir- 
itual instruction,  to  Timothy,  in  the  fulness  of  love  and  zeal  for 
his  future  prosperity  and  success  in  the  propagation  of  the  sound 
doctrine  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  .  .  .  He  then  proceeds : 

What  a  copious  catalogue  of  evils  does  the  apostle  here  prognosticate, 
which  would  spring  up  in  the  world  among  men  neglecting  the  gospel, 
and  not  led  by  the  power  thereof.  They  have  indeed  sprung  up,  in 
these  latter  days  especially.  Our  own  eyes  have  seen  them  ;  and  we 
could  enumerate  the  nations  and  people  among  whom  they  have  chiefly 
23 


354  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l792 

prevailed,  and  do  now  prevail,  and  which  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
are  called  by  St.  Paul  to  contend  against.  And  he  has  taught  us  how 
and  with  what  weapons  to  contend,  in  his  Epistle  to  Titus,  which  im- 
mediately follows  those  to  Timothy.  It  is  indeed  a  beautiful  and 
luminous,  although  a  short,  epistle,  teaching  the  doctrines  to  be 
preached  concerning  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs,  order  and  submis- 
sion in  society;  which,  if  they  could  prevail,  would  do  away  all  the 
disorders  and  iniquities  which  he  had  enumerated  above.  The  preacher 
then  quotes  largely  from  the  Epistle  to  Titus.  Such  Epistles  as  those -to 
Timothy  and  Titus,  read  as  Dr.  Smith  could  read  them,  were  deeply 
impressive  sermons.      He  proceeds: 

Although  my  years — but  not  the  station,  which  I  have  chosen  to  hold 
in  the  church  during  the  short  remaining  span  of  my  life — might  entitle 
me  to  address  you  in  the  character  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  or  of  a  father  to 
a  son,  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ;  yet,  as  that  is  not  necessary,  after  ad- 
dressing you  as  above,  in  the  Apostle's  own  words,  respecting  all  that 
he  thought  necessary  to  give  in  charge  to  one  of  the  first  primitive 
bishops,  consecrated  by  himself,  under  the  authority  committed  to  him 
by  Jesus  Christ;  yet  I  know  you  will  bear  to  be  reminded,  or  rather 
forewarned,  of  many  incidental  obstructions,  which,  from  the  state  of 
things  in  the  present  evil  days,  you  will  have  to  contend  against  in  the 
discharge  of  your  pastoral  duty ;  and  to  this  you  will  let  me  join  the 
fruits  of  my  own  experience,  and  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  assist 
you  in  your  pious  labors  to  struggle  against  infidelity  and  to  propagate 
the  faith  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  was  "once  delivered  unto  the 
saints." 

In  the  discharge,  therefore,  of  your  great  duty,  you  are  to  look  be- 
yond all  the  authorities  and  distinctions  of  men,  civil  or  ecclesiastical; 
nay,  and  beyond  the  authorities  of  apostles,  or  even  angels  themselves, 
any  further  than  as  you  believe,  after  careful  examination,  that  they 
assuredly  speak  by  divine  inspiration.  You  will  at  the  same  time  be 
careful  to  listen  to  the  illuminations  of  the  spirit  of  grace  within  you, 
and  to  look  up  steadfastly  to  the  supreme  authority  of  our  common 
Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ  himself,  in  whose  name  St.  Paul  gave  his 
charges  to  Timothy  and  Titus;  referring  forward  to  that  great  day  when 
He,  our  said  Lord  Jesus,  shall  come  to  judge  the  world  in  righteousness, 
to  make  up  his  jewels  and  establish  his  universal  and  everlasting 
kingdom  ! 

Here,  then,  I  might  close  my  notes  and  descend  from  the  pulpit, 
being  persuaded  that  nothing  more  is  necessary  to  be  addressed  to  you, 
my  dear  brother  and  bishop  elect,  now  soon  to  be  set  apart  for  the 
great  office  destined  you.  I  shall  only  add,  that  your  piety  and  learn- 
ing in  the  Scriptures,  your  exemplary  life  and  diligence  in  the  pastoral 
office,  have  been  long  known  to  me,  long  tried  and  approved  in  the 
■church  and  by  the  public. 


\J92~]  REV,    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  355 

And  thus,  though  I  might  here  conclude,  as  I  said  before,  yet  custom 
forbids  such  a  perfunctory  discharge  of  the  task  committed  to  me  on  a 
<\.\\  which  we  expect  to  be  so  propitious  to  all  our  church  concerns. 
There  are  reciprocal  duties  between  pastors  and  people  which  require  a 
further  detail  and  enforcement.  There  are,  as  enumerated  before,  dif- 
ficulties to  be  encountered  by  the  former,  which  can  only  be  struggled 
with  and  overcome,  or  in  any  degree  rendered  tolerable,  by  the  aid  and 
succor  of  the  latter. 

Your  greatest  aid,  however,  you  must  derive  from  yourself;  striving 
to  be  strong,  nay  mighty,  in  the  Scripture.  For  all  Scripture,  accord- 
ing to  our  apostle,  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God;  and,  in  your  min- 
istry, will  be  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness  ;— that  the  man  of  God  may  thereby,  through 
your  care,  be  perfectly  furnished  unto  all  good  works ;  and,  therefore, 
since  the  time  of  my  departure  or  death  is  so  near  at  hand,  and  this  may 
be  my  last  address  to  you,  my  beloved  son  in  the  gospel,  I  charge  you 
zealously  to  preach  the  word — preach  Jesus  Christ  (as  the  word  is  often 
understood).  Be  instant,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  in  public  and  in 
private,  as  occasion  may  require,  or  necessity  may  call  ;  by  day  and  by 
night,  in  times  of  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  church,  as  well  as  in 
times  of  her  adversity  and  persecution  !  Be  not  dismayed,  or  negligent 
of  the  gift  that  is  in  thee.  Repel  false  preachers  and  false  doctrines. 
Root  out  the  tares  from  the  wheat,  with  every  weed,  or  new-fangled 
thing,  which  springs  up  at  enmity  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  the  truth 
and  spirit  of  his  holy  religion.  But  what  need  I  add  more,  on  a  sub- 
ject so  fully  treated  of  in  sermons  which  I  have  delivered  before  many 
of  you,  on  former  occasions,  concerning  the  obstructions  that  fall  in  the 
way  to  retard  the  success  of  a  preached  gospel. 

I  proceed,  therefore,  in  addition  to  what  I  have  quoted  from  St.  Paul, 
to  say  something  more  concerning  the  peculiar  and  appropriated  duty 
of  a  chief  pastor  of  a  Christian  church.  And  here  I  need  only  read  the 
charge  you  are  speedily  to  hear,  from  the  officiating  bishop,  before 
"the  laying  on  of  hands,"  as  it  hath  been  collected  from  St.  Paul,  by 
the  pious  and  learned  fathers  of  our  church,  at  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. 

Give  heed  unto  reading,  exhortation  and  doctrine.  Think  upon  the  things  con- 
tained in  ibis  book.  Be  diligent  in  them,  thai  the  increase  coming  thereby  may  be 
manifest  unto  all  men.  Take  heed  unto  thyself,  and  to  doctrine,  and  be  diligent  in 
doing  them  ;  for,  by  so  doing,  thou  shalt  both  save  thyself  and  them  that  hear  thee. 
Be  to  the  flock  of  Christ  a  shepherd,  not  a  wolf.  Feed  them,  devour  them  not.  Hold 
up  the  weak,  heal  the  sick,  bind  up  the  broken,  bring  again  the  outcasts,  seek  the  lost. 
Be  so  merciful,  that  you  be  not  too  remiss.  So  minister  discipline,  that  you  forget  not 
mercy;  that,  when  the  Chief  Shepherd  shall  appear,  you  may  receive  the  never-fading 
crown  of  glory,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. — Amen. 

In  what  a  dignified   point    of   view  are  pastors  and  bishops  of  the 


356  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l792 

Church  of  Christ  spoken  of  in  Holy  Writ  !     By  whatever  names  they 
are  mentioned,  their  relation  to  Christ  is  always  kept  up. 

If  they  are  called  "the  salt  of  the  earth,"  it  is  a  salt  that  will  not  lose 
its  flavor  through  Christ. 

If  they  are  called  "ministers,"  they  are  the  ministers  of  Christ  ;  if 
laborers,  they  are  fellow-laborers  with  Christ  in  his  own  vineyard. 

If  they  are  called  "  watchmen,"  they  are  watchmen  over  the  souls  of 
them  whom  Christ  died  to  save. 

If  they  are  called  "pastors,"  they  are  pastors  of  that  flock  whereof 
Christ  is  the  chief  pastor,  or  shepherd. 

If  they  are  called  "stewards,"  they  are  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God,  and  of  Christ's  word. 

If  they  are  called  "ambassadors,"  they  are  ambassadors  of  Christ; 
and  hold  their  commissions  from  an  authority  that  is  paramount  to  all 
human  authority  and  power!  They  derive  them  from  that  power, 
which  governs  all  things  in  heaven,  and  on  earth  ;  and  are  declared  to 
be  "  sent  of  God,  as  though  God  did  beseech  the  world  through  them  in 
Christ's  stead  " — "  Be  ye  reconciled  unto  God." 

Having,  therefore,  such  high  and  dignified  names  bestowed  upon  us  ; 
having  our  commission  from  such  a  supreme  and  divine  authority  with 
such  a  promise  annexed  to  it* — I  say,  having  a  sure  promise,  from  our 
omnipotent  Master,  that  he  will  be  with  us,  to  support  us  in  our  duty, 
amidst  all  trials  and  sufferings  ;  and  that,  as  the  reward  of  our  perse- 
verance, he  will  place  us  in  the  world  to  come,  among  those  bright 
luminaries  of  glory,  who  sit  at  his  right  hand,  and  rejoice  in  the  beatific 
vision  of  his  refulgent  presence  forever  and  ever  !  Let  us  be  strong  in 
him. 

Moreover,  brethren,  standing,  as  I  think  we  may  consider  ourselves, 
nearly  on  the  same  primitive  foundation  of  purity  and  simplicity  in 
church  government,  and  a  free  order  of  things  among  ourselves  (under 
our  happy  civil  constitution),  as  the  apostles  and  first  Christians  stood,, 
when  they  neither  courted  human  authority,  or  human  splendor,  nor 
were  courted  by  them  ;  let  us,  I  say  again,  be  bold  and  diligent  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  carefully  to  hear  and  obey  the  last  part  of  the  apos- 
tle's charge,  namely: 

To  watch  and  to  be  strong,  ready  to  endure  afflictions,  and  to  make  full  proof  of  the 
gospel  ministry;  and  to  convince  men  that  it  is  from  God,  and  will  be  supported  by 
him. 

Thus,  when  it  is  seen  that,  according  to  the  measure  of  grace  which  is 
given  them,  and  of  their  abilities,  the  pastors  labor,  with  all  holy  zeal 
and  diligence,  to  watch  over,  to  preserve,  and  duly  to  feed  the  flock, 
committed  to  their  charge  ;   it  must  naturally  follow,  as  an  indispensable 


*  "  Go  ye  and  teach  all  nations,  and  lo  !   I  am  with  you,  unto  the  end  of  the  world 
They  that  turn  many  unto  righteousness  shall  shine  as  the  stars,  forever  and  ever.' 


i;92]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  357 

sacred  duty  on  the  part  of  the  flock,  on  the  other  hand,  that  they  listen 
to  the  voice  of  the  pastors  ;  that  they  strengthen  their  hands  in  their 
labors  for  the  good  of  the  flock  ;  that  they  hear  the  voice  of  the  shep- 
herds with  joy,  and  receive  it  as  the  voice  of  the  Great  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  their  souls  ! 

The  flock,  therefore,  is  to  be  under  obedience  and  rule  in  this  great 
case.  They  are  to  keep  in  mind  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  speaking  in  the 
character  of  a  great  and  faithful  pastor: 

"  If  we  have  sown  unto  you  spiritual  things,  is  it  a  great  thing,  or 
matter,  that  we  shall  reap  of  your  carnal  or  temporal  things?  "  For  if 
(by  the  grace  of  the  gospel)  the  Gentiles  have  been  made  partakers  of 
these  spiritual  things,  it  is  their  duty  also  to  minister  unto  them  (the 
pastors  i  in  their  carnal  or  temporal  things;  while  they  call  them  to 
happiness  and  salvation,  in  the  language  of  God,  from  his  great  mercy- 
seat  :  "  Come  up  thither,  and  I  will  show  thee  the  things  that  must  be 
hereafter.  Come  hither,  and  I  will  show  thee  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's 
Wife." 

My  beloved  brethren  and  hearers,  pardon  my  zeal  here,  if  it  appears 
warm  !  It  is  by  the  joint  efforts,  bothof  pastors  and  people,  that  the 
chief  obstacles  to  the  advancement  of  religion  and  true  practical  holi- 
ness, as  taught  by  Christianity,  can  be  overcome,  and  removed  or  sur- 
mounted. 

I  am  persuaded  that  I  address  no  person  here,  who  will  say  to  the 
seers,  "  See  not,  and  to  the  prophets,  prophesy  not  unto  us  right  things 
— speak  unto  us  smooth  things — prophesy  deceits  !  " 

No,  brethren,  I  know  you  love,  and  will  endure,  sound  doctrine  ;  and 
that  if  any,  even  under  the  mask  of  an  angel  from  heaven,  were  to 
preach  any  other  gospel  to  you  than  that  into  which  you  have  been 
baptized,  and  have  received  from  Christ  and  his  apostles  through 
divine  revelation  and  the  fathers  of  our  church,  according  to  its  true 
reformation,  you  would  say,  with  St.  Paul  :    "Let  him  be  accursed  !  " 

I  know  likewise,  that  the  plea  of  many  for  those  itching  ears,  that 
heaping  up  of  teachers,  that  seeking  after  new  doctrines  and  new  gospels 
is  pretended  by  these  seekers  to  be  of  a  conscientious  nature. 

My  charity  forbids  me  to  pry  into  the  temple  of  another  man's  heart, 
with  the  presumption  of  tracing  what  passes  there;  I  have  only  to  say, 
"Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits."  Nevertheless,  it  is  not  unchari- 
table to  inquire  what  may  be  the  causes  of  the  great  difference  in  the 
feelings  and  apprehensions  of  men,  and  whence  spring  the  effects  pro- 
duced among  them  in  hearing  the  preached  word  ?  Why  it  is  that  some 
hear  unto  salvation,  and  others  forbear  unto  destruction  ? 

The  reason  appears  to  be,  "That  the  former  have  submitted  their 
spirits  to  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  but  the  latter  are  buoyed 
up  by  the  spirit  of  this  world,  and  the  pride  of  their  own  unhallowed 
wisdom." 


35 8  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l792 

But  when  once  the  hearts  of  men  are  truly  mollified,  and  brought  to 
a  sense  of  their  own  corruption  and  danger  through  sin;  and  when,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  they  are  purged  from  the  dross  of  pride  and  preju- 
dice, they  will  fly  to  Christ,  and  submit  to  the  operations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  witness  within  them.  They  will  then  embrace  Him  as  the 
Way  and  the  Life;  they  will  rejoice  in  hearing  his  Holy  Word,  and  lay 
hold  of  his  blessed  Gospel  as  the  great  charter  of  their  salvation  ;  the 
richest  legacy  or  gift  which  heaven  could  give,  or  man  receive. 

Thus  touched  by  God  and  convinced  of  sin,  the  soul  will  pant  for 
salvation,  in  his  own  blessed  way,  according  to  the  sound  doctrine  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles;  not  by  cunningly-devised  fables,  not  in  man's 
wisdom,  disputing  about  the  means  and  the  mystery;  not  conferring 
with  flesh  and  blood;  but  by  a  strong  faith,  not  wavering;  an  animating 
hope,  that  maketh  not  ashamed,  and  a  burning  love,  that  never  can  be 
quenched;  silencing  every  doubt  of  carnal  reason,  and  subduing  the 
whole  spiritual  man  to  the  obedience  of  faith  under  grace. 

Being  now  brought  into  this  holy  submission,  the  soul  no  longer  re- 
sists the  drawings  of  the  Father  to  the  son ;  but  receives  that  spirit  of 
adoption  promised  by  God,  whereby  we  become  his  children,  and  ob- 
tain that  new  birth  so  often  spoken  of  and  so  little  understood;  leading 
us  to  delight  in  hearing  the  word,  joy  in  all  holy  exercises,  conscious  of 
the  power  of  God  in  the  soul,  through  Christ,  sitting  and  ruling  with 
his  sceptre  of  righteousness  in  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart. 

But  it  is  not  so  with  the  unregenerated,  whose  souls  are  not  brought 
into  this  holy  submission.  Some  of  them  are  wholly  listless,  and  loth 
to  hear,  or  examine  for  themselves.  Others  of  more  active  and  restless 
powers,  those  men  of  itching  ears  already  spoken  of,  must  be  doing 
something,  although  it  be  often  worse  than  nothing.  But  in  their 
doings  they  are  unstable  as  the  waves,  and  led,  as  they  phrase  it,  to  kill 
precious  time,  running  about,  like  the  Athenians  of  old,  to  tell  or  to 
hear  some  new  thing;  flying  from  altar  to  altar,  from  teacher  to  teacher, 
some  of  them  teaching  for  doctrine,  as  St.  Matthew  expresses  it,  the  com- 
mandments of  men,  and  some  of  them,  an  St.  Paul  says,  "giving  heed 
to  seducing  spirits  and  the  very  doctrines  of  devils." 

But,  my  beloved  brethren,  is  this  the  way  to  learn  or  to  know  Christ? 
Alas  !  it  is  far  otherwise.  He  i ;  not  a  divided  Christ,  nor  are  his  doc- 
trines either  new  or  uncertain.  It  is  time,  and  indeed  more  than  time, 
for  all  those  who  profess  his  blessed  name,  pastors  as  well  as  people,  to 
be  united  in  those  solid  and  essential  truths  which  lead  to  salvation  ;  to 
bid  adieu  to  whatever  is  new  fangled  and  conjectural  ;  and  to  deal  no 
more  in  that  light  bread  which  satisfieth  not  the  soul,  but  in  that  bread 
which  came  down  from  heaven,  and  strengtheneth  a  man's  heart. 

Could  Christians  be  united  thus,  in  love  and  in  doctrine,  the  great 
obstacles  to  the  success  of  the  preached  Gospel  would  more  easily  be 
removed.     But  although  we  cannot  expect  to  arrive  wholly  to  this  point 


I792]  ^EV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  359 

of  perfection,  yet  the  ministers  of  Christ's  religion  are  to  consider  it  as 
the  great  end  and  scope  of  their  labors,  and  to  persevere  accordingly, 
with  all  long-suffering,  diligence  and  patience,  unto  the  end. 

And  now  to  conclude,  let  us  devoutly  join  in  ascribing 

"Glory,  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth, 
who  in  his  own  good  time  hath  been  pleased  to  relieve  our  church,  in 
this  American  land,  from  the  distress  under  which  she  hath  so  long 
mourned  and  bewailed  herself;  by  supplying  us  with  a  complete  Episco- 
pate, and  the  means  of  continuing  it  in  a  necessary  succession  without 
having  recourse  to  any  distant  or  foreign  land;  being  now  enabled, 
under  God,  on  sound  evangelical  principles,  'to  ordain  elders  in  every 
city;  to  send  them  forth  to  preach  spiritual  liberty  to  the  miserable 
captives  held  under  the  powers  of  darkness ;  and  to  open  the  prison- 
doors  and  emancipate  into  the  light  of  heaven  those  who  are  fast  bound 
in  sin  and  the  shadow  of  death.'  " 

In  this  establishment  we  see  the  whole  Episcopate  of  the  land  from 
whence  many  of  us  sprung,  the  English  and  Scots,  happily  united. 

But,  my  venerable  brother,  although  these  circumstances  are  pleasing 
to  you  and  to  us  all,  we  are  not  to  turn  our  sight  from  the  difficulties 
yet  remaining  before  us  :  And  if  we  behold  even  hosts  of  foes  encamped 
in  our  way,  we  are  to  look  up  to  our  aid  from  on  high,  and  the  promise 
often  already  mentioned,  "  that  Christ  will  be  with  us  unto  the  end." 
Let  us  never  forget  that  to  contribute,  and  become  the  chief  means  of 
civilizing  and  evangelizing  savage  nations,  was  one  of  the  great  pur- 
poses, indeed  among  the  greatest,  for  which  God  planted  our  fathers  in 
this  land,  then  a  wilderness,  far  distant  from  European  scenes  of  felicity, 
and  improvements  in  arts  and  sciences. 

Should  we  forget  this,  and  begin  to  consider  that  this  fertile  land  was 
given  us  merely  for  our  own  secular  uses — to  eat  and  to  drink  out  of  its 
abundance  ;  nay,  unless  we  seek  to  maintain  religion  among  ourselves, 
to  impress  it  on  our  children,  and  to  diffuse  it  among  our  unenlightened 
neighbors — all  our  other  works,  our  zeal  and  struggles  for  liberty,  civil 
or  ecclesiastical,  all  our  boasted  forms  of  government,  the  complete 
establishment  of  our  independence,  acknowledged  by,  and  giving  us  a 
rank  among,  the  nations  of  the  earth — all  these  will  be  in  vain ;  for, 
although  they  are  great  blessings  and  highly  to  be  prized,  when  rightly 
understood  and  enjoyed,  we  must  remember  that  we  are  not  independent 
of  God,  who  holds  the  fate  of  nations  f.wfully  suspended  in  the  balance 
of  his  justice  and  power,  and  can  clearly  see  which  scale  preponderates 
in  virtue  or  vice — that,  if  we  become  remiss  or  negligent  in  the  duties 
assigned  us  on  this  immense  continent,  He  can  punish  us  for  our  in- 
gratitude, by  casting  us  out,  as  stubble,  to  be  burnt;  leaving  us  neither 
root  nor  branch,  and  raising  up  other  more  worthy  instruments  for  the 
accomplishment  of  His  own  eternal  purposes  of  love  towards  these  yet 
benighted  nations. 


360  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \}792 

But,  my  Christian  brethren,  I  hope  better  things  of  you,  although  I 
thus  speak.  I  hope  we  have  all  pledged  ourselves,  both  clergy  and 
laity,  before  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead  at  his  appearing  and  kingdom;  that  we  will  make  full 
proof  of  our  zeal,  and  will  persevere  therein  until  the  clouds  of  infidelity 
shall  be  dispersed  by  the  refulgent  rays  "of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
arising  with  healing  in  his  wings,  enabling  the  servants  of  God  to 
tread  down  the  wicked,  who  shall  be  as  ashes  under  the  soles  of  their 
feet." 

For  myself,  looking  forward  to  this  day-spring  from  on  high,  my 
bosom  always  expands  itself  into  divine  rapture.  And  I  now  glow  again 
with  a  remnant  of  the  warmth  of  more  youthful  days — days  now  half  a 
century  fled,  when  I  first  visited  this  American  world,  and,  in  rising 
prospect  and  poetical  rhapsodies,*  began  to  anticipate  its  future  glories; 
encouraged  and  animated  with  the  view,  even  at  that  time,  of  the  rapid 
spread  of  divine  knowledge;  the  thirst  that  prevailed  for  founding  and 
supporting  seminaries  of  learning,  in  order  to  aid  in  the  propagation 
of  true  and  rational  religion,  civil  liberty,  and  all  that  can  adorn  or 
exalt  human  nature,  in  the  great  scale  of  created  excellence  and  ex- 
istence in  this  new  world. 

I  would  not  dip  farther  on  this  occasion  into  the  depths  of  prophecy. 
In  other  sermons,  and  according  to  the  subjects,  the  line  of  my  abilities 
in  this  way  hath  been  extended  to  its  utmost  length,  and  would  not 
now,  in  my  feeble  state,  bear  any  further  stretching. 

I  have  only  to  add,  then,  by  way  of  final  exhortation,  that  you,  who 
are  in  the  active  stages  of  life,  will  consider  yourselves  standing,  as  it 
were,  in  the  midst  of  things  ;  called  upon  to  be  conspicuous  actors  in 
the  most  busy  and  important  scenes  of  that  great  drama  which  the  Al- 
mighty is  conducting  toward.;  its  conclusion. 

Looking  forward,  therefore,  as  well  as  backward,  and  listening  to  the 
voice  of  Scripture,  as  well  as  considering  the  analogy  of  things,  it  must 
appear  to  you  that  there  is  something  more  perfect  and  practically  pow- 
erful in  Christianity,  tending  also  to  its  more  extensive  propagation,  yet 
to  be  expected  before  the  consummation  of  earthly  things. — But  as  there 
are  prophecies  relating  to  different  ages  of  the  church  which  cannot  be 
fully  understood,  and  therefore  not  fully  explained,  until  they  are  fully 
accomplished,  we  pretend  not  to  say  at  what  period  of  the  Christian 
era  this  reformation  or  great  change  is  to  commence;  nor  how  or  by 
what  means  it  is  to  be  effectuated.  Here  let  conjecture  cease.  Let  us 
be  silent  before  God  ;  for  silence  will  be  our  best  praise  of  his  incom- 
prehensible wisdom  and  goodness. 

Amen  !  and  Amen  ! 


*  See  verses  spoken  at  the  opening  of  the  College  of  Mirania,  and  on  the  propaga- 
tion of  Religion,  Knowledge  and  Liberty,  chiefly  written  about  A.  V.  1740. 


179^]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  36 1 

It  is  obvious,  from  the  rhetorical  structure  of  all  parts  of  this 
discourse  that  it  gave  full  scope  for  those  elocutionary  powers  of 
which  Dr.  Smith,  even  at  the  age  of  sixty-five  years,  which  he 
had  now  reached,  remained  a  master.  Beyond  giving  a  venerable 
aspect  to  his  fine  face  and  figure,  time  had  produced  but  little 
effect  upon  his  frame  or  physical  powers.  The  force,  richness, 
and  other  fine  qualities  of  his  voice  remained  unimpaired,  and  his 
articulation  was  as  clear,  neat  and  distinct  as  it  had  ever  been. 
The  sermon  produced  great  effect.  It  made  every  one  feel  that, 
even  with  Ashbel  Green  beside  him,  and  the  memory  of  Gilbert 
Tennant's  best  days  yet  fresh,  Dr.  Smith  was  still  what  he  had 
been  for  forty  years,  the  pulpit  orator  of  Pennsylvania. 

After  the  sermon,  Dr.  Benjamin  Moore,  afterwards  the  honored 
Bishop  of  New  York,  in  whose  house  Dr.  Smith  always  lodged 
during  his  occasional  visits  to  that  city,  and  with  whom  he  was 
now  walking  home,  began  to  speak  of  the  sermon,  and  to  con- 
gratulate Dr.  Smith  on  the  attention  which  it  had  drawn  from  the 
very  large  and  mixed  audience  which  had  been  in  Trinity  Church. 
"  There  is,"  said  Dr.  Moore,  in  his  gayety  and  love  of  coining 
words,  "in  your  manner  of  delivery  such  a  concerncdiicss,  such  an 
inlookiiigncss,  such  appearance  of  being  in  earnest,  that  I  seek 
nothing  further  to  command  my  attention."  "What,"  said  Dr. 
Smith,  "do  you  not  look  for  the  glittering  ring,  the  lily-white 
hand  and  handkerchief  as  white,  displayed  and  lifted  up  towards 
heaven,  with  the  right  eye  pursuing  it  aloft;  and  the  gilt  sermon- 
cover  in  the  other  hand,  stretching  downwards  towards  the  con- 
gregation, with  the  left  eye  squinting  after  it,  as  if  to  ask,  '  What 
think  you  of  this  F'  However,"  adds  Dr.  Smith,  who  records  the 
pleasant  walk  and  talk,  "  we  both  agreed  that  the  truth  is  that 
neither  kind  of  oratory,  internal  or  external,  can  have  any  great 
influence  on  the  mind  of  rational  and  judicious  auditors  without 
great  care  in  the  choice  of  subjects,  a  proper  method  and  disposi- 
tion of  the  matter,  a  correct  and  chaste  style,  and  some  degree  of 
elegance,  or  at  least  neatness,  in  composition  on  the  part  of  the 
preacher;  things,  all  of  them,  to  be  felt  equally  by  the  learned  and 
the  unlearned." 

The  convention  of  1789  was  the  great  organizing  legislature  of 
the  church,  as  the  Congress  of  1789  was  the  great  organizing  legis- 
lature of  the  nation.     Each  made  those  organic  acts  by  which  the 


362  LIFE  AXD    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   77/E  [j/92 

system,  which  in  that  year  was  brought  into  being,  first  completely 
moved,  and  yet  continues  so  to  move.  In  every  act  of  one  we  see 
the  hands  of  Hamilton,  Ellsworth  and  Gouverneur  Morris ;  in  the 
other  the  hands  of  Seabury,  White  and  Smith.  The  convention 
of  1792  was  therefore  less  important  than  the  convention  of  1789. 
Nevertheless,  important  legislation  was  made  at  it.  One  of  the 
most  important  was  an  act  for  supporting  missionaries  to  preach 
the  Gospel  on  the  frontiers  of  the  United  States.  This  act  recom- 
mended to  all  the  ministers  of  the  church  to  preach  annually  a 
sermon  and  to  collect  money,  in  order  to  carry  out  the  charitable 
design.  Treasurers  were  to  be  established  in  each  State,  and  a 
general  treasurer  and  secretary  for  all  the  States.  The  appoint- 
ment of  these  last  was  placed  with  the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  a  standing  committee  to  manage  the  charity.  This  committee 
consisted  of  Bishop  White,  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Magaw,  Dr.  Andrews, 
Dr.  Blackwell,  Samuel  Powell  and  John  Wood,  Esqs.,  and  these 
were  directed  to  frame  an  address  to  the  members  of  the  church, 
recommending  this  charitable  design  to  their  particular  attention, 
which  address  was  directed  to  be  read  by  every  minister  on  the 
day  appointed  for  the  collection.*  Accordingly  an  address  was 
made  by  the  Bishop  and  Standing  Committee.  The  address  was 
sent  forth  in  April,  1793.  I  am  not  able  to  affirm  by  what  pen  it 
was  prepared.  I  have  seen  it  attributed  to  Dr.  Smith,  but  it  bears 
no  strong  marks  of  his  style,  though  the  sentiments  were  un- 
doubtedly such  as  might  have  well  come  from  his  mind.  I  cannot 
affirm  it  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Bishop  White.  The  style,  like  his 
in  the  mam,  strikes  me  as  not  quite  like  in  particulars;  nor  is  it 
like  Dr.  Magaw,  whose  compositions  were  always  elegant,  but 
usually  somewhat  artificial.  It  may  come  from  the  pen  of  Dr. 
Blackwell  or  of  Dr.  Andrews.  I  give  the  address,  from  whose- 
ever  pen  it  came,  or  whether  it  be,  as  it  may  well  be,  a  composi- 
tion in  which  more  than  one  pen  participated: 

When  the  congregations  of  our  communion,  a  few  years  ago,  by  a 

*I  am  not  well  informed  of  the  subsequent  history  of  this  society.  In  the  autumn 
of  1816  "The  Episcopal  Missionary  Society  of  Philadelphia"  was  made,  Bishop 
White  being  its  president,  and  his  particular  friends  its  officers.  It  carried  its  work 
into  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  the  western  region,  and  was  the  germ  of  "  The  Domestic  and 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  "  of  the  Church,  established  by  the  General  Convention  of 
1S20;   this  last  being  succeeded,  if  I  remember,  by  the  Board  of  Missions  in  1835. 


1792]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  363 

separation  from  the  former  centre  of  their  ecclesiastical  union,  had  be- 
come unconnected  with  one  another,  the  first  objects  which  engaged 
the  conventions,  successively  held,  were:  the  reuniting  of  the  compo- 
nent parts  of  the  body,  the  obtaining  of  the  Episcopacy,  and  the 
reviewing  of  the  Liturgy — objects  of  so  great  magnitude  ami  difficulty 
that  the  measures  most  proper  to  be  pursued  could  not  be  ascertained 
without  frequent  deliberation,  nor  determined  on  without  much  time 
and  pains:  although  now  happily  carried  into  effect,  with  every  ap- 
pearance of  stability,  and,  it  is  hoped,  to  general  satisfaction  and 
edification. 

Our  Church  being  thus  organized  on  those  principles  of  doctrine, 
discipline  and  worship,  which  we  had  inherited  from  the  Church  of 
England,  and  which  had  been  handed  down  to  us,  through  her,  from 
the  Apostles  and  the  early  fathers  of  the  whole  Christian  church,  it  must  be 
seen  that  the  principal  object  to  be  promoted  by  all,  in  their  respective 
stations,  as  the  effect  of  so  good  a  system,  is  an  evangelical  profession  of 
religion,  manifesting  itself  in  holiness  of  heart  and  life — an  effect  which 
may  be  looked  for  wherever  provision  has  been  made  for  the  stated 
preaching  of  the  word  and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments. 

There  are,  however,  many  places  in  which  no  such  provision  can  be 
made  bv  those  who  are  to  be  benefited  by  it,  owing  to  the  difficulties 
attendant  on  the  first  settlement  of  a  country,  and  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  settlers,  which,  in  general,  are  barely  competent  to  yield  them  a 
subsistence.  Of  persons  thus  situated,  there  are  very  many  on  the  ex- 
tensive frontier  of  the  United  States,  who,  having  been  educated  in  the 
faith  and  the  worship  of  our  Church,  wish  to  have  the  benefits  of  its 
ministry,  but  who  are  too  few,  in  their  respective  neighborhoods,  to 
provide  for  it  among  themselves,  or  indeed  to  expect  it  at  all,  unless  on 
the  itinerant  plan  now  proposed;  and  that  to  be  principally  supported 
bv  their  richer  brethren,  who  are  also  more  advantageously  situated  for 
a  combined  effort. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  convention  have  thought  it  a  duty, 
arising  out  of  the  trust  committed  to  them  by  the  Great  Head  of  the 
Church,  to  direct  their  attention  to  a  people  whose  circumstances  so 
strongly  claim  it  ;  and  to  call  on  the  pious  and  liberal  members  of 
their  communion  to  aid  them  in  the  undertaking  which  these  sentiments 
have  suggested. 

It  has  ever  been  held  a  duty,  incumbent  on  every  branch  of  the 
Christian  Church,  not  to  neglect,  as  far  as  opportunity  shall  offer,  the 
publishing  of  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  even  to  heathen  nations. 
Accordingly,  it  cannot  but  be  the  desire  of  every  member  of  our  com- 
munion that  something  may  be  attempted  by  us,  in  due  time,  for  as- 
sisting in  every  laudable  endeavor  for  the  conversion  of  our  Indian 
neighbors,  notwithstanding  former  disappointments  and  discourage- 
ments.    And  it  is  the  sincere  wish  and  prayer  of  those  who  now  address 


364  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [^792 

you,  that  the  day  may  not  be  far  distant  when  Providence  shall  open 
the  door,  and  we  shall  avail  ourselves  of  the  opportunity  for  so  good  a 
work.  But  if  this  be  a  duty,  how  much  more  so  is  the  extending  of  aid 
to  those  who  are  of  one  faith  and  one  baptism  with  ourselves,  but  who, 
from  unavoidable  causes,  are  without  those  means  of  public  worship 
which  the  Divine  Author  of  our  religion  has  accommodated  to  the 
wants  and  weaknesses  of  human  nature  ;  and  which  he  saw  to  be,  on 
those  accounts,  necessary  for  upholding  the  profession  of  his  name. 

The  promise  of  Christ,  to  be  with  his  Church  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
will  never  fail;  and  yet  particular  branches  of  the  universal  church  may 
either  nourish  or  decline,  in  proportion  to  their  continuing  in  a  pure 
profession  and  suitable  practice  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  their  falling 
into  error,  or  indifference  and  unholy  living,  on  the  other.  However 
prosperous,  therefore,  the  beginning  of  our  Church  in  this  new  world 
hath  been,  she  will  have  little  reason  to  look  up  for  a  continuance  of 
the 'Divine  blessing  if,  when  she  contemplates  so  many  members  of  her 
communion  "scattered  abroad,  as  sheep  having  no  shepherd,"  she  does 
not  use  her  diligence  to  bring  them  within  Christ's  fold,  and  to  secure 
to  them  a  stated  administration  of  the  ordinances  of  his  religion. 

Such  was  the  care,  in  times  past,  of  the  bishops  and  of  the  most 
eminent  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  laity  of  the  Church  of  England  for  the 
fellow-members  of  their  communion,  when  struggling  with  the  difficul- 
ties of  settlement  in  the  then  infant  colonies,  now  the  independent 
States  of  our  confederated  republic.  The  very  existence  of  our  Church 
in  some  of  these  States  must  be  ascribed,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  to 
the  aids,  to  which  we  here  look  back  with  gratitude.  The  degree  of 
her  prosperity  in  every  one  of  them  must  have  been  owing,  more  or 
less,  to  the  same  cause:  and  therefore  the  example  is  what  we  ought,  in 
reason,  to  imitate;  so  as  to  consider  our  brethren  on  the  frontiers  as  not 
to  be  deserted  because  they  are  distant,  but,  from  their  remote  situation, 
as  the  especial  objects  of  our  concern. 

In  accomplishing  that  labor  of  love,  which  has  been  projected  by  the 
convention,  we  shall  be  doing  what  may  be  expected  of  us,  not  only  as 
Christians,  but  as  good  citizens  of  a  land  of  liberty  and  law,  the  best 
security-  of  both  being  moral  principles  and  habits  ;  which  can  only  be 
derived  from  the  influence  of  religion  on  the  minds  of  the  people.  For 
however  it  may  be  contended  by  some,  that  the  sense  of  religion  is  un- 
connected with  the  duties  of  civil  life,  we  owe  it  to  God  and  to  our 
country  to  guard  the  members  of  our  church  against  that  licentious 
principle,  and  accordingly  to  endeavor  the  extension  of  Christian 
knowledge,  as  well  with  a  view  to  temporal  peace  and  prosperity  as  for 
the  securing  of  the  immortal  happiness  of  a  better  life. 

Under  the  impression  of  these  sentiments,  we  hope  for  the  concur- 
rence of  all  the  members  of  our  church  in  the  undertaking  now  proposed 
to  thern:   and  intending,  with  the  Divine  aid,  to  exert  our  best  abilities 


179j]  Kev-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  365 

for  a  faithful  administration  of  the  trust  reposed  in  us  by  the  conven- 
tion, we  subscribe  ourselves, 

\our  affectionate  Brethren, 

William  White,  I).  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant 

Episcopal   Church   in  the  Commonwealth  of 

Pennsylvania. 
William  Smith,  D.  D.,  ") 

Samuel  Magaw,  D.  D.,  The  standing 

John  Andrews.  D.  D.,  I   committee  ap- 

Robert  Blackwell,    D.  D. ,      f  pointed  by  the 
Samuel  Powel,  j   convention. 

John  Wood,  J 

Philadelphia,  April  22,  1793. 


CHAPTER    LVI. 

The  Yellow  Fever  of  1793  in  Philadelphia — Mr.  Matiiew  Carey's  Account 
of  it — Advertisements  and  Communications  in  the  Newspapers  about 
it — Extracts  from  Dr.  Smith's  Diary  during  the  Pestilence — Death 
of  Dr.  Smith's  Wife — Address  and  Exhortation  by  the  Clergy  of 
Philadelphia — A  Proclamation  by  the  Governor — A  Series  of  Ser- 
mons in  Christ  Church  by  Dr.  Smith,  on  the  Cessation  of  the  Pesti- 
lence and  in  Reference  to  it — President  and  Mrs.  Washington  always 
Regular  Attendants  on  Divine  Service  at  Christ  Church,  and  early 
Present  on  the  Reopening  of  the  Church,  on  the  occasion  of  these 
Discourses. 

In  the  latter  part  of  June,  1793,  Philadelphia  was  terror-stricken 
and  desolated  by  that  awful  form  of  pestilence  which  has  lately 
visited  a  portion  of  our  Southwestern  States,  and  which  is  known 
as  the  Yellow  Fever.  Dreadful  as  were  its  ravages  recently  in  that 
region  which  seems  naturally,  with  its  great  swamps  and  low  lands, 
more  open  to  the  plague,  they  were  no  more  dreadful  than  those 
which  befell  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  summer  and  early 
autumn  of  1793.  The  state  of  affairs  at  the  time  is  thus  graphi- 
cally told  by  the  late  noble-hearted  Mathew  Carey,  who,  during 
the  ravages  of  the  pestilence,  remained  in  the  city,  devoting  him- 
self to  the  necessities  of  the  sick  and  dying : 

The  consternation  of  the  people  of  Philadelphia  at  this  period  was 
carried  beyond  all  bounds.  Dismay  and  affright  were  visible  in  almost 
every  person's  countenance.     Most  of  those  who  could  by  any  means 


366  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [j793 

make  it  convenient  fled  from  the  city.  Of  those  who  remained,  many 
shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses,  being  afraid  to  walk  the  streets. 
The  smoke  of  tobacco  being  regarded  as  a  preventive,  many  persons — 
even  women  and  small  boys — had  cigars  almost  constantly  in  their 
mouths.  Others,  placing  full  confidence  in  garlic,  chewed  it  almost  the 
whole  day;  some  kept  it  in  their  pockets  and  shoes.  Many  were  afraid 
to  allow  the  barbers  and  hairdressers  to  come  near  them,  as  instances 
had  occurred  of  some  of  them  having  shaved  the  dead,  and  many  hav- 
ing engaged  as  bleeders.  Some,  who  carried  their  caution  pretty  far, 
bought  lancets  for  themselves — not  daring  to  allow  themselves  to  be 
bled  with  the  lancets  of  the  bleeders.  Many  houses  were  scarcely  a 
moment  in  the  day  free  from  the  smell  of  gunpowder,  burnt  tobacco, 
nitre,  sprinkled  vinegar,  etc.  Some  of  the  churches  were  almost  de- 
serted, and  others  were  wholly  closed.  The  coffee-house  was  shut  up, 
as  was  the  city  library  and  most  of  the  public  offices.  Three  out  of  the 
four  daily  papers  were  discontinued,  as  were  some  of  the  others.  Many 
devoted  no  small  portion  of  their  time  to  purifying,  scouring,  and 
whitewashing  their  rooms.  Those  who  ventured  abroad  had  handker- 
chiefs or  sponges,  impregnated  with  vinegar  or  camphor,  at  their  noses, 
or  smelling  bottles  full  of  thieves'  vinegar.  Others  carried  pieces  of 
tarred  rope  in  their  hands  or  pockets,  or  camphor-bags  tied  round  their 
necks.  The  corpses  of  the  most  respectable  citizens — even  of  those 
who  had  not  died  of  the  epidemic — were  carried  to  the  grave  on  the 
shafts  of  a  chair,  the  horse  driven  by  a  negro,  unattended  by  a  friend 
or  relation,  and  without  any  sort  of  ceremony.  People  uniformly  and 
hastily  shifted  their  course  at  the  sight  of  a  hearse  coming  toward  them. 
Many  never  walked  on  the  footpath,  but  went  into  the  middle  of  the 
streets,  to  avoid  being  infected  in  passing  houses  wherein  people  had 
died.  Acquaintances  and  friends  avoided  each  other  in  the  streets, 
and  only  signified  their  regard  by  a  cold  nod.  The  old  custom  of 
shaking  hands  fell  into  such  general  disuse  that  many  shrunk  back  with 
affright  at  even  the  offer  of  the  hand.  A  person  with  crape  or  any 
appearance  of  mourning  was  shunned  like  a  viper;  and  many  valued 
themselves  highly  on  the  skill  and  address  with  which  they  got  to  wind- 
ward of  every  person  whom  they  met.  Indeed,  it  is  not  probable  that 
London,  at  the  last  stage  of  the  plague,  exhibited  stronger  marks  of 
terror  than  were  to  be  seen  in  Philadelphia  from  the  25th  or  26th  of 
August  till  late  in  September.  When  the  citizens  summoned  resolution 
to  walk  abroad  and  take  the  air,  the  sick  cart  conveying  patients  to  the 
hospital,  or  the  hearse  carrying  the  dead  to  the  grave,  which  were  travel- 
ing almost  the  whole  day,  scon  damped  their  spirits,  and  plunged  them 
again  into  despondency. 

While  affairs  were  in  this  deplorable  state,  and  people  at  the  lowest 
ebb  of  despair,  we  cannot  be  astonished  at  the  frightful  scenes  that 
were  acted,  which  seemed  to  indicate  a  total  dissolution  of  the  bonds 


1/93 j  REV*    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  367 

of  society  in  the  nearest  and  dearest  connections.  Who,  without  hor- 
ror, can  reflect  on  a  husband,  married  perhaps  for  twenty  years,  desert- 
ing his  wife  in  the  last  agony — a  wife,  unfeelingly  abandoning  her 
husband  on  his  death-bed — parents  forsaking  their  children — children 
ungratefully  flying*  from  their  parents,  and  resigning  them  to  chance, 
often  without  an  inquiry  after  their  health  or  safety — masters  hurrying 
off  their  faithful  servants  to  Bush  Hill,  even  on  suspicion  of  the  fever, 
and  that  at  a  time  when,  almost  like  Tartarus,  it  was  open  to  every 
visitant,  but  rarely  returned  any — servants  abandoning  tender  and 
humane  masters,  who  only  wanted  a  little  care  to  restore  them  to  health 
and  usefulness — who,  I  say,  can  think  of  these  tilings,  without  horror? 
Yet  they  were  often  exhibited  throughout  our  city;  and  such  was  the 
force  of  habit  that  the  parties  who  were  guilty  of  this  cruelty  felt  no 
remorse  themselves,  nor  met  with  the  censure  from  their  fellow-citizens 
which  such  conduct  would  have  excited  at  any  other  period.  Indeed, 
at  this  awful  crisis,  so  much  did  self  appear  to  engross  the  whole  atten- 
tion of  many,  that  in  some  cases  not  more  concern  was  felt  for  the  loss 
of  a  parent,  a  husband,  a  wife,  or  an  only  child,  than,  on  other  occa- 
sions, would  have  been  caused  by  the  death  of  a  faithful  servant. 

This  kind  of  conduct  produced  scenes  of  distress  and  misery  of 
which  parallels  are  rarely  to  be  met  with,  and  which  nothing  could 
palliate  but  the  extraordinary  public  panic  and  the  great  law  of  self- 
preservation,  the  dominion  of  which  extends  over  the  whole  animated 
world.  Men  of  affluent  fortunes,  who  have  given  daily  employment 
and  sustenance  to  hundreds,  have  been  abandoned  to  the  care  of  a  negro, 
after  their  wives,  children,  friends,  clerks  and  servants,  had  fled  away, 
and  left  them  to  their  fate.  In  some  cases,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  disorder,  no  money  could  procure  proper  attendance.  With  the 
poor,  the  case  was,  as  might  be  expected,  infinitely  worse  than  with  the 
rich.  Many  of  these  have  perished  without  a  human  being  to  hand 
them  a  drink  of  water,  to  administer  medicines,  or  to  perform  any 
charitable  office  for  them.  Various  instances  have  occurred  of  dead 
bodies,  found  lying  in  the  streets,  of  persons  who  had  no  house  or 
habitation,  and  could  procure  no  shelter. 

The  same  state  of  things  is  more  than  adumbrated  by  the  ad- 
vertisements and  communications  which  we  take  at  random  from 
a  package  of  newspaper  cuttings  made  by  Dr.  Smith  at  the  time. 

Preventative  against  the  Raging  Yellow  Fever. 

It  has  been  suggested,  with  much  appositeness  of  reasoning,  by  no 
means  unworthy  of  attention,  that,  to  avoid  being  infected  with  the 
epidemic  malady  now  prevailing  in  this  metropolis,  it  is  necessary  to 
breakfast  early,  and  that  without  tho>e  appendages  of  the  tables  com- 
monly called  RclisJics,  whether  of  fish  or  flesh.     To  avoid  lassitude  and 


368  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [J793 

fatigue,  as  much  as  may  be;  and  to  dine  moderately,  on  fresh  animal  and 
vegetable  food,  about  one  o'clock  in  the  day;  drinking  beer,  cider,  or 
good  brandy,  respectively  diluted  with  water,  as  the  wholesomest  bever- 
age at  meals.  In  the  evening,  tea  or  coffee  may  be  drank,  with  simple 
bread  and  butter,  as  in  the  morning;  but  suppers  are  to  be  avoided. 
Dram-drinking  (which  some  persons  practise  in  the  morning,  and  in- 
deed at  other  times  of  the  day,)  is  at  all  times  an  evil  and  destructive 
habit;   but  at  present,  is  doubly  pernicious  in  its  effects. 

To  the  Citizens. — A  supply  of  old  shirts,  shifts  and  linen,  of  any 
kind,  is  much  wanted  at  the  hospital  for  the  sick. 

Those  who  have  any  to  spare,  are  requested  to  send  them  to  the  State 
House,  where  a  person  is  appointed  to  receive  them. 

Matthew  Clarkson,  Mayor. 

Sept.  13,  1793. 

The  Printers  are  requested  to  publish  this  advertisement  for  a  few  days. 

Generous  Wages  will  be  given  to  persons  capable  and  willing  to 
perform  the  services  of  Nurses  at  the  Hospital  at  Bushhill,  as  the  end 
desired  by  establishing  the  hospital  at  Bushhill  much  depends  on  good 
nursing  and  attendance.  The  citizens  of  Philadelphia  will  render  es- 
sential service  to  the  sick,  by  aiding  in  procuring  suitable  persons  for 
this  employment.  Those  who  are  willing  to  engage  will  please  to  apply 
to  Israel  Israel,  Thomas  Wistar,  or  Caleb  Lownes. 

Edward  Movston  begs  leave  to  inform  his  friends  and  the  public, 
that  he  will  shut  up  his  Coffee-House  to-morrow,  the  fever  now  preva- 
lent being  in  its  vicinity;  as  well  as  on  account  of  none  of  the  mer- 
chants having  frequented  the  same  for  some  days  past — most  of  them 
having  retired  to  the  country. 

Sept.  13,  1793.  d4t- 

JB^  At  this  particular  crisis,  in  which  so  many  of  the  merchants  and 
others  are  absent  from  the  city,  the  indisposition  of  two  of  the  letter- 
carriers  renders  it  necessary  to  request  all  those  who  dwell  south  of  and 
in  Chcsnut-street,  and  in  Front  and  Water,  north  of  Market-street,  to 
call  or  send  for  their  letters  for  a  few  days. 

Sept.  13.  dtf- 

A  Call  for  a  Meeting. — At  a  meeting  of  a  number  of  citizens,  held 
at  the  Court  House,  this  evening,  Sept.  13th,  in  consequence  of  a  verbal 
appointment  of  the  Mayor  and  others  convened  at  the  City  Hall,  to 
take  into  consideration  the  present  calamitous  state  of  the  city  and  its 
environs,  having,  in  company  with  the  overseers  of  the  poor,  made  in- 
quiry into  the  situation  of  the  poor  and  afflicted,  are  of  the  opinion 
that,  as  it  is  not  in   the  power  of  the  overseers  to  afford   the  necessary 


1793]  KEV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  369 

aid  that  the  cases  of  the  sick  require,  that  the  citizens  be  again  con- 
vened, that  some  effectual  means  may  be  adopted  to  mitigate  and,  if 
possible,  to  afford  relief  to  the  afflicted. 

Upon  motion,  Resolved,  That  the  secretary  be  directed  to  publish  the 
foregoing  minute,  and  to  request  the  citizens  to  attend  a  meeting  at  the 
City  Hall  on  the  14th  instant,  at  12  o'clock;  and  that,  in  the  mean- 
time, Israel  Israel,  Thomas  Wistar  and  Caleb  Lownes  be  requested  to 
confer  with  the  physicians  appointed  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  at  Bush- 
Hill,  obtain  information  of  their  situation,  and  furnish  the  necessary 
aid  and  relief  in  their  power  to  afford. 

Caleb  Lownes. 

In  pursuance  to  this  call,  another  meeting  was  held.  On  this 
occasion  it  was  reported  that  the  hospital  was  without  order  or 
supervision,  that  several  superintendents  and  nurses  were  needed 
there,  that  a  sum  of  money  ought  instantly  to  be  procured  to  aid 
in  obtaining  necessaries  for  the  sick,  and  that  a  large  committee 
ought  to  be  appointed  from  the  city,  Northern  Liberties  and 
Southwark,  to  aid  the  sick  and  distressed.  Fifteen  hundred  dol- 
lars were  ordered  to  be  borrowed,  if  possible,  from  the  Bank  of 
North  America,  and  a  committee  was  appointee,  to  transact  the 
whole  of  the  business  relative  to  succoring  the  sick,  providing 
physicians,  nurses,  etc. 

Our  honored  city  of  Philadelphia,  then  the  metropolis  of  the 
nation,  and  where  the  President  and  Congress  were  so  lately 
assembled  in  power,  became  suddenly  a  terror  and  a  by-word  to 
the  people.  Its  sister  cities  were  taking  every  precaution  to  pre- 
vent the  entrance  within  their  limits  of  any  one  from  Philadelphia, 
and  to  eject  such  an  one  if  in  any  way  he  came  within  them.  The 
following  proclamation  from  the  then  mayor  of  New  York  will 
illustrate  the  state  of  things  : 

Bv  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

To  the  Practising  Physicians  of  the  said  City  : 

New  York,  Sept.  11,  1793. 
Gentlemen  :  Great  apprehensions  are  entertained  by  many  of  our 
fellow-citizens  that,  notwithstanding  every  prudent  and  legal  precaution, 
the  contagion  of  that  distressing  infectious  disorder  which  now  carries 
off  many  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  may  be  brought  into  this  city, 
by  means  of  the  open  intercourse  between  the  two  cities,  which  cannot 
lawfully  be  interrupted  by  any  power  in  this  State.  You  are  therefore 
hereby  notified  that  the  corporation  of  this  city  have  taken  measures  to 
24 


370  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [j793 

provide  a  proper  place  as  a  hospital  for  such  persons  as  may  unhappily 
become  subjects  of  that  afflicting  disease  in  this  city. 

And  I  do  also  hereby  request  each  of  you  to  report  to  me,  in  writing, 
to  be  left  at  my  office  in  King  street,  the  names  of  all  such  persons  as 
have  arrived  or  shall  arrive  from  Philadelphia,  or  any  other  place,  by 
land  or  water,  and  now  are  sick,  or  may  be  taken  sick,  and  be  under 
your  care  respectively,  together  with  the  number  and  street  of  their 
respective  residence,  and  the  nature  of  the  sickness,  that  such  as  may  be 
deemed  to  be  subjects  of  infectious  disease  may  be  removed  out  of  the  city. 

Richard  Varick,  Mayor. 

We  have  some  interesting  notes  on  the  subject  of  this  pestilence 
in  the  Diary  of  Dr.  Smith.  They  are  written  at  different  times, 
after  August  28th,  1793: 

September  10,  1793. 
Nathaniel  Blodget,  Esq.,*  was  buried  at  Christ  Church.  The  plague, 
or  so-called  "Yellow  Fever,"  has  taken  possession  of  the  town.  My 
friend  Thomas  Miller  has  been  buried  some  days.  The  physicians  have 
warned  the  people  to  care  and  cleanliness,  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the 
contagion;  and  to  mark  the  houses  in  which  it  has  appeared.  We  still 
stay  in  our  town-house,  as  I  consider  it  my  duty  as  a  clergyman  to  re- 
main where  I  can  be  of  some  consolation  and  use.  I  advise  my  dear 
wife  to  go  to  our  son's,  at  Norristown,  or  to  let  my  boy  drive  her  to  our 
son  Richard's,  at  Huntingdon,  in  the  chair;  but  she  is  not  willing  to 
leave  my  side.  We  daily  burn  gunpowder  about  the  house,' and  Primus^ 
makes  smoke  in  the  cellar.  The  Mayor  has  requested  the  churches  to 
cease  the  tolling  of  bells  at  funerals.  Dr.  Rush  calls  on  us  every  day, 
and  for  some  days  gave  us  gentle  doses  of  salts;  but  he  now  advises  the 
use  of  barks,  or  of  calomel   and  jalap.     In   fact,  he   knows  not  what 

to  give. 

September  13. 

Francis  Xavier  Dupont,  Consul  of  the  French  Republic,  at  Philadel- 
phia, died  last  night  at  his  seat  at  Bensalem,  Bucks  county.      He  was  a 

firm  patriot  and  an  honest  man. 

Seplember  14. 

Alexander  Murray,  my  old  friend  from  Aberdeen,  died  at  this  date. 

He  was  buried  in  the  evening. \ 

October  13. 

No  service  in  Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's,  on  account  of  the  illness 
of  the  clerk  and  sexton  of  Christ  Church  and  the  sexton  of  St.  Peter's. 


*  Nathaniel  Blodget  here  mentioned  was  brother-in-law  of  Mrs.  Samuel  Blodget,  the 
Doctor's  daughter.     He  was  in  the  navy,  and  had  just  returned  from  a  voyage. 

f  The  name  of  a  favorite  negro  man  whom  the  Doctor  had  brought  with  him  from 
Maryland. 

%  For  an  account  of  this  gentleman,  see  Appendix,  No.  III. 


1/93]  KEV,    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  37 1 

October  18. 

The  Rev.  James  Sproat  died.* 

19th. 

The  churches  still  closed.  I  wrote  to  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  White, 
to  prevail  upon  him  to  leave  the  city.  He  informs  me  that  he  has  never 
slept  out  of  the  city  during  this  whole  calamity.  With  others,  I  tell 
him  that  we  consider  it  as  a  great  and  needless  risk. 

October  20. 

Dr.  Blackwellf  was  taken  with  the  fever  to-day,  and  was  removed 
across  the  river,  over  to  Gloucester,  in  the  Jerseys.  I  pray  God  to 
restore  him  to  his  life  of  usefulness. 

Dr.  George  De  BennevilleJ  died  at  Branchtown. 

*  This  was  a  respected  clergyman  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  An  inscription  upon 
a  monument  to  his  memory  says  of  him : 

Whatever  is  guiltless, 

Candid  and   benevolent 

In  the  human  character, 

YY.is  conspicuous  in  him. 

Amiable  in  domestic  life, 

Fervent  in  piety, 

Mighty  in  the  Scriptures, 

riain,  practical  and  evangelical 

In  preaching, 

Eminent  in  tenderness  and  charity  for  others, 

Humble  in  his  views  of  himself, 

He  was  beloved  and  respected  as  a  man, 

Useful  and  venerable  as  a  minister  of  Christ. 

f  Dr.  Blackwell  had  a  plantation  in  or  among  the  pines  of  New  Jersey,  and  to  th  ■> 

pure  and  invigorating  influence  of  the  air  prevalent  in  these  woods  he  perhaps  owed 

his  recovery.     For  a  memoir  of  this  estimable  gentleman,  a  much  respected  friend  of 

Dr.  Smith,  see  Appendix,  No.  I. 

J  De  Benneville's  father  was  a  Huguenot,  who  fled  to  England  as  a  refugee  from 
persecution,  and  he  was  employed  at  court  by  King  William.  His  mother  was  of  the 
Granville  family,  and  died  soon  after  he  was  born,  in  1703.  The  orphan  was  taken 
charge  of  by  Queen  Anne,  was  placed  on  board  of  a  ship-of-war,  being  destined  for  the 
navy  at  twelve  years  of  age,  and  received  his  first  religious  impressions  on  the  coast 
of  Barbary  by  beholding  the  exceeding  kindness  of  the  Moors  to  a  companion  wounded 
by  a  fall.  For  fifteen  months  he  was  in  a  state  bordering  on  despair,  by  reason  of  in- 
ward doubting  of  his  own  salvation,  and  at  the  end  of  that  period  of  suffering  he  was 
brought  into  the  marvellous  light  of  universal  restitution.  Feeling  it  his  duty  to  preach 
this  great  truth  in  France,  he  opened  his  testimony  in  the  market-house  of  Calais  about 
the  seventeenth  year  of  his  age.  He  was  taken  before  a  magistrate  and  sentenced  to 
eight  days'  imprisonment  for  the  offence.  Notwithstanding  the  warning  that  a  repe- 
tition would  endanger  his  life,  he  persisted  for  the  space  of  two  years  in  preaching  in 
France,  mostly  in  the  woods  and  mountains.  In  these  labors  Dr.  Benneville  had 
equally  zealous  preachers  in  co-operation — a  Mr.  Durant  being  of  the  number,  a  man 
of  twenty-four  years  of  age.  At  Dieppe  these  two  ministers  were  seized,  tried,  and 
condemned  to  death.  Durant  was  hanged,  and  while  preparations  were  being  made  to 
behead  De  Benneville  a  reprieve  arrived  from   Louis  XV.     He  wis  imprisoned   for  a 


372  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [j793 

But  the  pestilence  was  walking  in  darkness,  and  in  a  moment 
was  at  the  side  of  Dr.  Smith  himself.  He  was  spared,  but  one 
dearer  to  him  than  himself  was  stricken  down  in  the  destruction 
of  the  noonday.  The  following  letter  to  Dr.  Rush  gives  us  some 
interesting  particulars  of  the  sad  event.  It  would  seem  that  Dr. 
Rush,  the  family  physician  of  Dr.  Smith,  had  himself  been  taken 
ill  suddenly  with  the  fever,  and  was  therefore  unable  to  attend 
Mrs.  Smith,  though  prior  to  her  being  taken  ill  he  had  been  con- 
stantly visiting  Dr.  Smith's  house  and  prescribing  for  his  family: 

Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  Rush. 

Philadelphia,  October  23d,  1793. 

My  Dear  Friend:  Indeed  my  only  friend,  whose  own  distress  has 
permitted  him  to  mingle  his  cordials  of  consolation  in  my  bitter  cup 
of  affliction.  How  shall  I  thank  you  for  your  many  sympathies — worthy 
of  a  physician,  and  (what  is  above  all)  worthy  of  a  Christian? 

The  severest  dispensation  of  Providence  is  now  past  with  me,  and 
blessed  be  God  who  has  enabled  me  to  sustain  it.  That  dispensation 
which  shall  lay  me  by  the  side  of  my  dear  departed  inestimable  treasure 
in  this  life,  will  be  but  little  felt,  as  I  trust  through  the  mercies  of  my 
God  and  Saviour,  it  will  call  me  to  share  with  her,  her  treasure  in  an- 
other and  better  life,  where,  as  you  so  well  express  it,  according  to  the 
sacred  oracles,  Death  and  the  grave,  and  hell  itself  shall  be  "swallowed 
up  in  victory;"  the  genuine  friendships  of  this  life  shall  be  revived, 
and  love  and  life  and  light  and  truth  reign  forever  and  ever. 

But,  oh  !  busy  recollections  and  memory  asleep  and  awake,  and  the 
many  tender  charities  and  offices  due  to  my  bereaved  family  and  chil- 
dren, who  nearly  adored  the  heavenly  woman  I  have  lost;  the  sight  of 
the  numerous  remembrances  of  her  in  the  lonesome  house;  the  letters 
and  written  charges  which  she  has  left  me,  with  the  delivery  of  her  keys 
to  me  by  the  faithful  little  black  girl  after  her  funeral,  judge,  my  dear 
sir,  nay  feel — for  your  feelings  are  tenderly  alive — how  these  circum- 
stances thrill  my  nerves,  which  were  never  strong,  and  how  they  keep 
my  heart  and  limbs  and  whole  body  in  such  a  palpitation  and  trembling 

long  time  in  Paris,  and  was  finally  liberated  by  the  intercession  of  the  queen.  He 
afterwards  went  to  Germany,  in  which  country  lie  spent  about  eighteen  years,  preach- 
ing extensively,  devoting  himself  in  the  meanwhile  to  scientific  studies.  In  the  thirty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age  he  emigrated  to  America,  and  was  taken  from  the  ship  by  Christo- 
pher Saner.  On  recovering  from  his  illness,  De  Benneville  established  himself  in  Oley, 
Bucks  county,  as  a  physician,  and  also  temporarily  as  a  teacher.  He  also  preached 
and  travelled  much  as  a  medical  botanist  among  the  Indian  tribes  in  norihern  Penn- 
sylvania. He  intermarried  with  the  Bartolet  family,  of  Oley,  and  about  1 757  removed 
to  Milestown,  where  he  died  in  1793,  aged  ninety  years. 


1 793]  KEV-   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  3/3 

that  I  fear  the  consequences.     The  scene  of  her  funeral  and  some  pre- 
ceding circumstances  can  never  depart  from  my  mind. 

On  my  return,  with  my  wife,  from  a  visit  to  ourdaughter — whom  we  had 
been  striving  to  console  on  the  death  of  Mrs.  Keppele — long  familiar  and 
dear  to  both  of  us — my  dear  loving  wife  passing  the  gates  of  Christ  Church 
Burying-ground,  which  stood  daily  open,  led  me  through  it  to  the  graves  of 
the  two  children,  and  calling  the  old  grave-digger,  marked  out  a  spot  for 
herself  as  close  as  possible  to  her  children  and  the  grave  of  Dr.  Phineas 
Bond,  whose  memory  she  adored.  By  the  side  of  the  spot  we  found 
room  and  chose  also  one  for  me,  as  it  was  not  permitted  during  the 
sickness  to  open  a  grave  once  closed  for  the  burial  of  another.  We 
therefore  directed  the  grave-digger  that  this  should  be  the  order  of  our 
interment,  and  pledged  ourselves  to  each  other  that  this  order  should 
be  observed  by  the  survivor.  But  let  me  not  be  tedious  to  you.  It 
gives  me  some  ease  as  my  children  are  all  absent,  and  cannot  come  near 
me  in  town,  to  pour  these  circumstances  into  the  bosom  of  a  friend. 
In  melancholy  mood  we  returned  to  our  house.  Night  approached.  I 
hoped  my  dear  wife  had  gone  to  rest,  as  she  had  chosen  since  her  re- 
turn from  nursing  her  daughter  through  the  fever  to  sleep  in  a  chamber 
by  herself  through  fear  of  infection  to  her  grandchild  and  me.  But  it 
seems  she  closed  not  her  eyes,  sitting  with  them  fixed  through  her 
chamber  window,*  on  Mrs.  Keppele's  house  (who  had  died  that  day), 
until  about  midnight,  she  saw  her  hearse  and  followed  it  with  tearful 
eves  as  far  as  it  would  be  seen.  Two  days  afterwards,  Mrs.  Rogers,  her 
next  and  only  surviving  intimate  friend,  was  carried  past  her  window, 
and  by  no  persuasion  could  we  draw  her  from  thence,  nor  stop  her 
sympathetic  foreboding  tears,  so  long  as  her  eyes  could  follow  the 
funeral,  which  was  down  Arch  street,  two  squares  from  Fourth  street,  to 
Second  street,  where,  turning  the  corner  to  the  Baptist  Church,  the 
hearse  disappeared.  She  threw  herself  on  her  bed  and  requested  me, 
who  had  stood  by  her  side  during  the  time  of  the  funeral  procession,  to 
leave  her  to  her  own  reflections  for  a  few  minutes,  and  she  would  soon 
be  with  me  in  my  study,  where  I  was  writing  letters  to  my  friends  and 
family  on  business  to  the  westward.  She  took  her  pen  and  assisted  me 
in  copying  some  of  them.  It  was  Saturday;  and  we  had  persuaded  our 
daughter  to  set  out  for  Norristown  next  day.  My  wife,  though  she  in- 
formed me  on  Saturday  evening,  that  she  was  indisposed — and  I  am 
persuaded  was  sure  of  the  nature  of  her  case — yet  she  charged  me  not 
to  inform  her  daughter,  and  sent  me  to  hasten  her  out  of  town  on  Sun- 
day morning,  with  an  apology  that  she  could  not  see  her  before  she  sat 
out,  finding  it  necessary  to  take  a  little  physic  for  a  slight  indisposition, 

*  Dr.  Smith's  house,  to  which  he  refers,  was  that  fine  old-fashioned  one  still  stand- 
ing at  the  southwest  corner  of  Fourth  and  Arch,  about  one  hundred  feet  helow  the 
east  side  of  the  grave-yard  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia. 


374  LIFE   AXD   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  D793 

and  that  if  she  would  send  the  carriage  back  in  two  or  three  days,  we 
hoped  to  follow  her  to  Norristown.  While  I  was  getting  my  daughter 
ready  and  seeing  her  a  few  miles  out  of  town,  which  was  not  until  two 
o'clock,  on  Sunday,  my  dear  wife  with  her  own  hand,  had  written  the 
note  which  you  must  have  in  your  possession,  the  contents  of  which,  or 
her  apprehensions  expressed  in  it,  I  can  only  guess.  You  know  the 
rest.  My  situation  through  the  week  following  the  Sunday  evening,  at 
six  o'clock,  when  in  much  agony  by  a  sudden  and  unexpected  turn, 
after  I  had  fondly  written  to  all  my  distant  family,  and  to  my  dear 
brother  that  I  believed  her  out  of  danger,  she  breathed  her  last,  com- 
posed and  patient;  her  countenance  appearing  to  brighten,  as  her  pangs 
and  groans  ceased,  into  the  countenance  of  an  angel. 

Decently  as  the  time  would  permit,  my  mournful  family  assisted  only 
by  a  worthy  and  pious  black,  Richard  Allen,*  she  was  laid  in  her  coffin. 
I  approached  with  my  dear  grandchild  in  my  arms,  as  near  as  the  black 
man  would  allow,  to  take  my  last  view.  Silent,  but  more  awful  and 
instructive  than  all  the  funeral  pomps  in  the  world,  and  short  the  dis- 
tance we  had  to  go,  I  followed  her,  accompanied  only  by  the  coffin- 
maker,  and  by  Richard  Allen,  and  my  own  weeping  and  faithful  black 
boy,  to  the  spot  she  had  chosen,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  to 
deposit  all  of  her  that  was  mortal. 

Severe  was  the  task  that  it  remained  for  me,  yesterday,  to  write  to  my 
daughter  and  other  children,  and  to  good  Mrs.  Cadwalader,  who  loved 
her  aunt  as  her  own  parent.  When  these  letters  were  finished,  and  an 
express  dispatched  to  my  son,  William,  to  take  all  prudent  measures 
possible  to  support  his  sister  in  her  affliction.  My  messenger  having 
taken  his  course  up  the  street,  my  anxious  dutiful  son  came  to  my  door 
while  I  was  visiting  the  grave  to  see  if  it  had  been  properly  covered  in 
the  night.  My  black  boy  met  my  son  at  the  door  of  my  house,  and 
was  obliged  to  answer  his  inquiry  concerning  his  mother;  that  she  was 

*This  was  an  excellent  and  well-known  negro  in  his  day  in  Philadelphia.  He  was 
born  A.  D.  1760,  and  was  originally  a  slave  of  Chief  Justice  Chew,  as  afterwards  of  a 
Mr.  Stokely,  in  Delaware.  He  cut  wood,  and  was  a  laborer  in  brickyards.  During 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  he  was  an  army  teamster.  By  habits  of  economy  and  thrift 
he  accumulated  some  money  with  which  he  purchased  his  freedom.  lie  then  learned 
the  trade  of  shoemaking,  and  for  many  years  carried  on  business  on  the  south  side  of 
Spruce  street  below  Fifth.  He  had  several  journeymen  and  apprentices  constantly  in  his 
employ.  He  owned  and  managed  at  the  same  time  a  small  farm  in  the  Neck,  below 
the  city,  and  accumulated  a  considerable  amount  of  property  by  various  occupations. 
With  all  these  he  exercised  the  office  of  a  preacher,  preaching  among  the  Methodist 
negroes.  Though  education  had  not  lent  her  hand  in  his  behalf,  he  had  a  capacity 
that  few  of  his  color  exhibit,  and  had  unbounded  influence  over  the  people  of  his  de- 
nomination. He  was  eminently  a  humane  man.  In  common  with  Absalom  Jones, 
another  colored  person,  he  rendered  invaluable  services  to  the  citizens  during  the  prev- 
alence of  the  yellow  fever,  in  1793.  Jones  was  long  a  servant  of  Dr.  Blackwell,  and 
was  afterwards  ordained  by  Bishop  White  a  minister  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 


1/93]  KEV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  375 

no  more.  I  soon  came  from  the  ground  and  saw  my  dear  son  leaning 
against  the  wall,  for  he  would  not  enter  the  house,  nor  amidst  the  dis- 
tressing scene  could  we  exchange  a  word,  but  such  as  expressed  my 
desire,  and  his  ready  obedience  that  he  would  fly  to  his  sister  and  over- 
take the  messenger.  This  he  did  at  eight  miles  distance  from  town. 
I  have  heard  no  more,  and  I  dread  to  hear  from  a  daughter  who  loved 
and  knew  the  value  of  such  a  mother. 

But  much  remains  for  me  yet — my  son  Charles  and  his  wife,  my 
brother  and  his  wife,  my  son  Richard  at  Huntingdon,  in  whose  bosoms 
she  was  equally  precious.  I  can  find  no  conveyance,  and  hard  will  be 
my  task  to  write  if  my  spirits  and  health  can  be  supported  so  long. 

For  that  reason  only,  and  a  few  more  family  matters  not  yet 
arranged — especially  a  codicil  which  my  dear  wife's  death  makes  neces- 
sary to  my  will — if  it  will  please  God,  I  would  pray  for  a  few  days  con- 
tinuance of  health.  Then  as  to  worldly  matters  I  shall  be  prepared,  and 
through  the  goodness  of  God  I  trust  I  am  preparing,  though  we  can  never, 
never  be  fully  prepared  (except  in  his  mercy)  in  our  spiritual  matters. 

If  God  continues  me  longer,  my  worldly  concerns  will  be  in  a  small 
compass.  His  goodness  having  given  me  time  to  distribute  a  sufficient 
inheritance  to  my  children,  acquired,  I  trust,  honestly  and  industriously 
without  injury  to  any  man,  and  I  hope  and  believe  from  the  goodness 
of  all  my  children,  in  whom  I  consider  myself  blest,  they  will  use  it 
accordingly.  For  the  rest  of  my  days,  and  they  cannot  be  many,  I 
would  willingly  devote  them  to  discharge  some  public  engagements  by 
assorting  and  leaving  to  the  world  some  sermons  and  other  writings. 
But  if  they  cannot  have  my  last  hand,  my  executors,  to  be  named  in  my 
proposed  codicil,  must  suppress  all,  except  what  I  have  already  published 
and  avowed. 

My  friend,  Mrs.  Cadwalader,  and  Mrs.  Bond,  press  me  with  your 
advise  to  take  calomel  and  jalap,  etc. — I  know  nothing  of  preventatives 
— and  then  to  move  out  of  town,  but  I  wish  not  to  remove  to  a  distance 
from  you  for  some  days  yet,  nor  until  you  advise.  I  trust  you  will  soon 
be  so  restored  that  you  may  have  a  personal  interview.  If  moving  for 
a  few  days  to  my  daughter's  will  change  the  scene  a  little,  perhaps  it 
may  be  of  use. 

Thus,  my  good  friend,  I  have  poured  into  your  bosom,  confidenti- 
ally, what  may  be  of  use  to  my  family,  for  to  none  of  them  have  I  had 
leisure,  nor  would  it  be  yet  proper  to  say  so  much.  The  name  and  mem- 
ory of  my  dear  wife  I  must  commit  to  your  friendly  hand,  who  knew 
her  virtues  so  well,  to  say  to  the  public  what  may  be  necessary  ;  but  of 
this  nothing  yet,  as  I  would  not  have  her  name  announced  among  the 
dead,  until  I  find  means  first  to  notify  it  to  my  distant  family.  Alas! 
how  shall  I  live  without  her?  I  never  had  a  joy  which  became  a  joy  to 
me  until  she  shared  it.  I  never  had  a  sorrow  which  she  did  not  alle- 
viate and  participate.  I  never  did  an  action  which  I  would  consider  as 
truly  good,  until  she  confirmed  my  opinion. 


376  LIFE   AXD    CORRESPONDEXCE    OF   THE  [l/93 

For  my  many  failings  and  infirmities  she  had  a  friendly  veil. 

Her  conversation  was  enlightened,  and  that  with  her  correspondence 
by  letter  during  my  many  absences,  have  been  my  joy  for  thirty-five 
years  and  more.  My  tears  now  stop  my  hand,  and  will  relieve  you  from 
reading  more. 

From  your  obliged  and  affectionate 

William  Smith. 
To  Dr.  Rush. 

Excuse  inaccuracies,  omissions  of  words,  etc.,  for  I  cannot  read  over 
or  correct  what  has  flowed  from  my  heart  and  pen. 

On  the  1 8th  of  November,  Dr.  Smith  prepared  an  address  and 
exhortation  by  the  clergy  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  to  the  citizens 
of  the  same,  urging  them  to  set  apart  a  day  not  only  as  a  day  for 
Thanksgiving,  but  also  one  of  confession,  humiliation  and  prayer. 
Though  drafted  so  early  as  November,  it  was  not  published,  as  its 
date  shows,  till  December  the  11th.  It  having  been  the  wish  of 
Dr.  Smith  and  Bishop  White  that  it  should  be  signed  by  some  of 
the  clergy  then  absent  from  the  city,  but  whose  presence  was  then 
daily  expected.  It  appeared  in  the  Federal  Gazette,  at  the  date  just 
above  mentioned. 

To  the  Citizens  of  Pennsylvania  : 

The  clergy  of  different  denominations,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
having  had  under  deep  meditation  the  late  awful  calamity,  with  which 
it  hath  pleased  Almighty  God,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  to  visit  and  afflict 
this  city ;  and  devoutly  considering  the  improvement  which,  as  a 
Christian  people,  it  becomes  us  to  make  of  the  dispensations  of  his 
Providence,  "who  doth  according  to  his  holy  will  in  the  armies  of 
heaven  and  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,"  have,  with  one  heart 
and  voice,  agreed  and  concluded  it  to  be  their  indispensable  and  sacred 
duty  to  recommend  and  request:  — 

That  a  day  be  set  apart,  and  kept  holy  unto  the  Lord,  not  merely  as  a 
Day  of  Thanksgiving  for  that,  in  all  appearance,  it  hath  pleased  him, 
of  his  infinite  mercy,  to  stay  the  rage  of  the  late  malignant  disorder 
(when  we  had  well  nigh  said,  hath  God  forgot  to  be  gracious!  )  but 
also  as  a  day  of  solemn  humiliation,  and  prayer,  joined  with  the  con- 
fession of  our  manifold  sins,  and  of  our  neglect  and  abuse  of  his  former 
mercies;  together  with  sincere  resolutions  of  future  amendment  and 
obedience  to  his  holy  will  and  laws;  without  which,  our  prayers,  praises 
and  thanksgivings  will  be  vain. 

In  this  solemn  review  of  our  past  lives,  and  of  the  dealings  of  the 
Lord  with  us  and  our  forefathers,  let  us  be  serious  with  ourselves, 
and    search   our   wounds   and    sores    to    the   bottom.      For,    although 


1793~\  REV-  William  smith,  d.  d.  377 

the  Almighty  may  manifest  himself  to  a  people,  in  judgment  as 
well  as  mercy,  by  means  of  natural  causes  and  with  the  same  breath 
that  he  bids  the  pestilence  rage,  he  can  bid  its  ragings  cease ;  yet  his 
purposes  in  both  are  to  be  our  chief  consideration,  and  he  hath  told  us, 
'•that  when  his  judgments  are  in  the  land,  the  inhabitants  should  learn 
righteousness." 

On  this  great  and  humiliating  occasion,  the  clergy  consider  it  as 
needless  for  them  to  remind  the  inhabitants  of  this  land  of  what  God 
hath  done  for  us,  and  the  many  instances  of  his  divine  favor  and  inter- 
position, in  the  establishment  of  our  civil  liberties  and  independence, 
together  with  the  enjoyment  of  the  pure  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  and  the  exercise  of  his  holy  religion,  according  to  the  rights  of 
conscience,  under  a  government  of  laws,  and  wise  civil  institutions 
of  our  own  free  and  peaceable  choice,  there  being  "none  to  make  us 
afraid."  But  the  clergy  must  consider  it  as  a  special  and  most  weighty 
part  of  their  bounden  duty  to  warn,  to  exhort,  and  to  press  the  most 
earned  inquiry — whether  we  have  made  a  due  improvement  of  those 
innumerable  blessings  which  the  Almighty  hath,  in  his  goodness,  even 
heaped  upon  us?  Have  we  at  all  times  made  use  of  our  civil  liberty 
itself,  as  not  seeking  to  abuse  it?  But,  more  especially,  have  we  sought 
in  good  earnest,  and  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God,  to  improve  our  precious 
Gospel  privileges,  by  striving  to  make  the  fruits  of  the  same  conspicuous 
in  our  lives,  and  "in  all  holy  conversation  and  godliness?"  Or 
whether,  on  the  contrary,  the  worship  of  the  true  and  living  God,  and 
the  sacred  ordinances  of  the  Gospel,  have  not  been  too  much  slighted, 
or  neglected,  for  the  false  pleasures  of  this  world,  its  dissipations,  its 
follies,  or  perhaps  the  too  eager  pursuit  of  its  goods  and  enjoyments? — 
evils  which,  having  their  origin  too  generally  among  the  gay,  the  rich, 
and  those  in  higher  stations,  have,  by  fatal  example,  spread  themselves 
downwards  among  all  classes  of  our  people,  to  the  dishonor  of  God  and 
the  unspeakable  injury  of  their  moral  and  religious  character,  as  well  as 
the  waste  and  ruin  of  their  temporal  substance  and  the  distress  and 
poverty  of  their  families  ! 

Together  with  this  retrospective  view  of  our  own  conduct,  and  of  the 
calamity  from  which  it  hath  pleased  God  to  deliver  us,  who,  through 
his  mercy,  survive,  let  us  not  forget  to  mourn  with  those  that  mourn, 
to  sympathize  with  them  in  their  distress,  and  to  administer  to  their 
comfort  and  relief.  This  will  be  a  fruitful  subject  of  devout  medita- 
tion;  and,  through  divine  grace,  will  awaken  and  make  us  feelingly 
alive  to  all  holy  and  religious  impressions:  while  we  recall  to  our  memory 
those  melancholy  days  and  nights  when  corps  after  corps  of  beloved 
husbands  and  wives,  dutiful  sons  and  daughters,  useful  citizens,  vener- 
able pastors,  in  quick  and  almost  uninterrupted  succession,  were  borne 
along  our  streets  in  the  solitary  hearse,  with  scarce  a  friend  or  relative 
to  follow  them  to  the  grave  !     Oh  !    let  us  now  consecrate  their  dust 


578 


LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE 


[1793 


with  our  tears ;  and,  hoping  that  they  have  departed  in  the  Lord,  thus 
supply  the  solemn  rites  of  Christian  interment  which  the  hard  necessity 
of  the  times  then  forbade. 

Thus,  prepared  and  humbled  by  deep  meditation,  by  confession  and 
repentance  of  our  sins,  and  prayers  for  forgiveness  and  amendment — 
then  our  praises  and  thanksgivings  to  God,  for  our  late  deliverance 
and  for  stirring  up  the  hearts  of  so  many  of  our  pious  and  benevolent 
brethren  throughout  the  United  States  to  intercede  for  us  in  their 
prayers,  and  to  administer  so  liberally  to  the  relief  of  our  afflicted  and 
suffering  poor,  will  ascend  as  a  sweet  incense  to  heaven,  and  be  a  holy 
and  acceptable  sacrifice  before  the  throne  of  grace,  through  the  merits 
and  intercession  of  our  blessed  Saviour  and  Redeemer  Jesus  Christ. 

Subscribed  at   Philadelphia, 
November  18,  1793. 


Wm.  White, 
Wm.  Smith, 
John  Andrews, 
Ashbel  Green, 
Robert  Annan, 
Henry  Helmuth, 
Samuel  Magaw, 
Joseph  Pilmore, 
Wm.  Rogers, 


Friedrick  Schmidt, 
John  B.  Smith, 
John  Dickins, 
Joseph  Turner, 
Joseph  Hutchins, 
Robert  Blackwell, 
Christ.  V.  Keating, 
Thomas  Ustick, 
Nicholas  Collin, 


Mathew  Mage. 


In  the  meantime  the  Governor  of  the  State,  General  Mifflin,  re- 
quested Dr.  Smith  to  furnish  a  draft  for  a  proclamation  of  Thanks 
to  Almighty  God  for  having  put  an  end  to  the  grievous  calamity 
that  had  recently  afflicted  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  The  following 
is  an  abstract  of  the  proclamation  prepared  by  Dr.  Smith  and  issued 
by  the  Governor  on  this  great  occasion  : 


Whereas,  it  hath  pleased  Almighty  God  to  put  an  end  to  the  grievous 
calamity  that  recently  afflicted  the  city  of  Philadelphia;  and  it  is  the 
duty  of  all,  who  are  truly  sensible  of  the  Divine  Justice  and  Mercy,  to 
employ  the  earliest  moments  of  returning  health  in  devout  expressions 
of  penitence,  submission  and  gratitude ;  I  have  therefore  deemed  it 
proper  to  appoint  Thursday,  the  Twelfth  day  of  December,  to  be  holden 
throughout  this  commonwealth  as  a  day  of  general  Humiliation,  Thanks- 
giving and  Prayer  ;  earnestly  exhorting  and  entreating  my  fellow-citizens 
to  abstain  on  that  day  from  all  their  worldly  avocations,  and  to  unite 
in  confessing,  with  contrite  hearts,  our  manifold  sins  and  transgressions, 
and  in  acknowledging,  with  thankful  adoration,  the  mercy  and  goodness 
of  the  Supreme  Ruler  and   Preserver  of  the  universe,  more  especially 


1/93]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  379 

manifested  in  our  late  deliverance  ;  praying,  with  solemn  zeal,  that  the 
same  Mighty  Power  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  instil  into  our  minds 
the  just  principles  of  our  duty  to  Him  and  to  our  fellow-creatures ;  to 
regulate  and  guide  all  our  actions  by  his  Holy  Spirit;  to  avert  from  all 
mankind  the  evils  of  war,  pestilence  and  famine;  and  to  bless  and  pro- 
tect us  in  the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  etc. 

We  come  now  to  make  mention  of  certain  discourses  found  in 
Maxwell's  edition  of  his  works,  which  were  preached  by  Dr. 
Smith  in  Christ  Church  in  the  last  month  of  1793  and  the  earlier 
part  of  the  following  year — sermons  suggested  by  the  terrible 
pestilence  from  which  the  city  was  at  last,  by  God's  mercy,  de- 
livered. The  first  of  these  sermons  was  preached  on  the  day 
appointed  for  the  general  humiliation,  thanksgiving  and  prayer, 
by  the  proclamation  of  which  some  abstract  has  just  been  given. 
Dr.  Smith,  however,  has  himself  given  so  interesting  an  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  sermons  and  of  some  particulars  connected 
with  them,  especially  of  President  Washington's  reverential  at- 
tendance and  deportment  in  connection  with  their  delivery,  that  I 
offer  to  my  readers  an  account  all  in  his  own  language : 

During  the  chief  rage  of  the  first  great  epidemic  called  the  yellow 
fever,  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  year  1793 — v'z-  :  from  the  latter  end  of 
September  till  towards  the  end  of  November — the  churches  had  been 
generally  shut  up,  except  Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's,  which  had 
been  kept  open  by  Bishop  White  and  Dr.  Blackwell,  unless  on  the  13th 
and  20th  of  October,  when  the  illness  of  the  clerk  and  sexton  of  Christ 
Church  and  sexton  of  St.  Peter's  prevented  their  being  opened.  Bishop 
White  was  preserved  in  tolerable  health,  and  never  slept  out  of  the  city 
during  the  whole  calamity,  which  some  of  his  friends,  myself  among 
others,  told  him  they  considered  as  a  great  and  needless  risk.  Dr. 
Blackwell  was  taken  ill  with  the  fever  on  the  27th  of  October,  and  re- 
moved across  the  river,  into  the  Jerseys,  near  Gloucester.  After  about 
a  month's  severe  illness  he  begun  (almost  beyond  expectation)  to  appear 
on  the  recovery,  although  with  but  little  hopes  of  being  able  soon  to 
resume  his  pastoral  duties  in  the  churches.  Those  duties,  therefore, 
were  like  to  fall  heavy,  at  least  for  some  time,  on  good  Bishop  White, 
whose  kind  visits  to  myself  and  his  other  friends  in  the  city  were  con- 
tinued during  the  whole  time  of  the  affliction. 

But  the  goodness  of  God  now  giving  a  prospect  of  a  near  termination 
of  the  disorder,  the  Bishop  paid  me  a  short  visit  a  few  days  before  the 
1st  of  December,  and  told  me  that  on  that  day  the  churches  under  his 
care,  after  the  short  interruption  of  a  week  or  two,  as  mentioned  above, 
would  be  on  the  usual  footing  of  public  service  twice  a  day  in  each 


380  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [  1 793 

church;  and  with  great  delicacy  and'  tenderness  to  me,  in  my  mournful 
situation,  he  hinted  a  wish  for  some  temporary  assistance  from  me,  if  I 
was  able,  and  that  in  preaching  only :  at  the  same  time  offering  me  my 
choice  of  the  turn  of  duty.  I  told  him  that,  so  far  as  I  was  able,  it 
always  gave  me  happiness  to  co-operate  with  him  in  any  duty,  but  that 
he  must  give  me  the  choice  of  my  subjects  as  well  as  of  the  turns  of 
duty;  that  none  but  melancholy  subjects — themes  of  distress,  notes  of 
woe — could  accord  with  my  feelings  and  then  gloomy  frame  of  mind. 
His  reply  was  with  his  usual  look  of  complacency,  intimating  ap- 
probation. 

Nine  Sermons  from  1st  Thessalonians,  chap,  iv.,  verses  13-18 — on 
Death,  a  Resurrection  from  the  Dead,  a  Future  Judgment,  and  an 
Eternal  World  to  Come,  were  the  fruits  of  that  period  of  melancholy 
and  deep  reflection.  The  first  was  preached  on  Sunday,  December  1st, 
1793,  and  the  last  on  March  9th,  1794,  in  Christ  Church,  all  in  the 
forenoon.  This  was  understood  to  be  according  to  the  wish  of  the 
President  and  his  good  lady.  It  is  certain  that  they  were  present 
at  the  delivery  of  all  of  them,  and  generally  of  every  sermon 
preached  in  Christ  Church,  in  the  forenoon,  during  the  session  of 
Congress. 

General  Washington,  exemplary  in  all  his  conduct,  and  anxious  to 
know  when  it  might  be  safe  for  the  citizens  to  resume  their  business  and 
stations  in  town,  had  officially  consulted  the  physicians.  Under- 
standing by  their  answers  to  him,  as  well  as  to  some  of  the  clergy  who 
had  consulted  them  also,  that  sundry  of  the  churches,  and  particularly 
Christ  Church,  where  he  and  his  lady  always  attended  divine  service, 
would  be  opened  on  Sunday,  the  first  of  December,  that  day,  or  the 
day  before,  he  came  from  Germantown,  and  presented  himself  early 
before  God  in  the  church  on  Sunday.  His  example  was  followed  by 
multitudes;  and  the  church  was  more  than  usually  crowded,  before  I 
got  into  it.  The  scene  was  sadly  solemn:  all  eyes  were  apparently  cast 
down  in  afflictive  meditation.  The  deepest  attention  and  silence  pre- 
vailed, during  the  morning  service  ;  and  at  the  delivery  of  the  sermon, 
not  a  cheek  appeared  dry  ;  for  scarcely  a  man  or  woman  was  present, 
who  had  not  to  mourn  the  loss  of  a  dear  friend  or  relative.  The 
preacher's  duty  was  interesting.  He  was  a  fellow-sufferer  and  co- 
mourner.  He  does  not  remember  that  ever  he  lifted  his  eyes  from  his 
notes,  which  were  drenched  in  tears.  He  was  then,  if  ever,  in  the  situ- 
ation described  by  Luther,  and  impressed  with  the  feelings  of  every 
preacher,  who,  like  Luther,  is  truly  interested  in  his  subject,  and,  so  to 
speak,  weighed  down  with  its  truth  and  importance. 


1795]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  381 


CHAPTER    LVII. 

The  Eight  Sermons  on  the  great  Visitation  of  Pestilence  remarked  on — 
Distinguished,  even  above  the  Author's  other  Pulpit  Discourses,  by 
Seriousness  and  Solemnity— Extracts  from  several  of  them. 

The  visitation  of  pestilence,  1793,  was  an  event  in  Philadel- 
phia, at  this  time  the  metropolis  of  the  United  States,  so  awful ; 
its  effects,  by  death,  upon  our  then  society  so  considerable,  and 
the  terror  which  it  continued  to  inspire,  for  some  years  so  wide- 
spread, that  I  may  venture  to  refer  somewhat  fully  to  the  sermons 
of  Dr.  Smith  upon  the  calamity. 

We  note  primarily  that,  solemn  and  serious  as  most  of  Dr. 
Smith's  pulpit  discourses  are,  these  are  characterized  by  solemnity 
and  seriousness  beyond  the  common  degree.  He  was  now  sixty- 
seven  years  old.  "Uncertain,"  he  says,  "of  the  number  of  days, 
or  months,  or  years  remaining  to  me,  but  certain  that  they  cannot 
be  many,  and  those  attended  with  the  decay  of  mental  as  well  as 
of  bodily  faculties,"  he  naturally,  after  a  life  marked  by  such  vicis- 
situdes and  such  calamities  as  his  had  been,  sought  at  the  present 
moment  to  lead  his  hearers  into  paths  of  righteousness,  with  no 
thought  whatever  of  the  impression  which  he  himself  would  make 
on  any  one.  In  sermons  upon  occasions  of  ceremonious  worship, 
such  as  in  the  sermon  before  the  Grand  Master  and  Grand 
Officers  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Society  of  Free  and  Ac- 
cepted Masons  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  celebrated  on  the 
anniversary  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  we  see  bold  and  lofty 
rhetoric.  What  exordium,  for  example,  can  be  finer  than  the  one 
in  his  Masonic  sermon  of  1778?*  Bishop  Atterbury's  celebrated 
one  upon  the  text  from  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke,  "Blessed  is  he 
that  shall  not  be  offended  in  me,"  where  the  Bishop  at  once  breaks 
out,  "And  can  any  one,  blessed  Lord,  be  offended  in  thee?"  is  not 
more  bold.  It  has  no  pretensions  to  rhetoric.  Dr.  Smith,  in  his 
discourse  before  the  Masons,  is  preaching  from  the  text  of  1  Peter 

*  Works,  Vol.  II.,  p.  43. 


382  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  ['793 

ii.  16,  "As  Free,  and  not  using  your  Liberty  for  a  cloak  of  licentious- 
ness" He  thus  opens.  With  his  figure,  his  voice,  his  natural 
dramatic  power,  the  experiment  was  safe,  as  probably  it  was  in  the 
case  of  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  but  it  would  be  perilous  indeed 
to  the  common  preacher: 

Liberty,  evangelical  and  social !  Jewel  of  inestimable  price  !  Thou 
blessing,  of  all  blessings  the  first!  Wooed  and  courted  by  many;  won 
and  wedded  by  few!  Ever  near  us,  yet  often  at  a  distance  fancied. 
Through  all  the  modes  of  faith,  by  the  saint  pursued;  and  in  every  frame 
of  government  by  the  patriot  sought.  Oh,  thou  celestial  Good,  or, 
rather,  Thou  who  art  the  Author  of  all  good,  terrestrial  and  celestial — 
Supreme  Architect  of  the  universe;  who,  by  our  great  and  Spiritual 
Master,  thy  Son,  hast  taught  us  the  true  Way  of  Liberty — the  way  of 
being  free  and  accepted  through  Him!  May  I  now  be  enlightened 
and  enlivened  by  a  ray  from  Thee ! 

But  now,  in  the  sermons  upon  the  late  awful  epidemic,  there  is 
nothing  like  this.  He  was  "no  actor  here,"  though  his  style, 
naturally  casting  itself  into  rhetorical  forms,  still  preserves  its 
habitual  characteristics.  His  text  is  from  a  series  of  verses,  that 
is  to  say,  from  the  13th  to  the  1 8th  inclusive,  of  the  4th  chapter 
of  the  First  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the  Thessalonians. 
Every  one  remembers  them: 

But  I  would  not  have  you  to  be  ignorant,  brethren,  concerning  them  which  are 
asleep,  that  ye  sorrow  not,  even  as  others  which  have  no  hope. 

For  if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died,  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in 
Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him. 

For  this  we  say  unto  you,  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  that  we  which  are  alive,  and  re- 
main unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shall  not  prevent  them  which  are  asleep. 

For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the 
Archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of  God  :   and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first. 

Then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain,  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the 
clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air;  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord. 

Wherefore  comfort  one  another  with  these  words. 

Dr.  Smith  thus  proceeds,  solemnly  and  grand: 

Yes,  brethren  and  sisters!  ye  bereaved  mourners  for  parents,  hus- 
bands, wives,  children  and  dearest  relatives,  say  a  solemn  Amen,  and 
"comfort  one  another  with  these  words."  For  if  there  be  consolation 
in  this  world,  amidst  this  suffering  scene  of  man,  here  it  is  complete, 
and  revealed  to  us  by  a  divinely  illuminated  apostle  of  Christ ;  leading 
our  meditations  forward  through  all  the  future  changes  and  periods  of 
our  existence  and  condition,  as  mortals  and   immortals,  "to  death,  a 


1793]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  383 

resurrection  from  the  dead,  a  future  judgment,  and  an  eternal  world  to 
come."   .   .   . 

The  impressions  of  the  dreadful  calamity,  from  which  we,  who  are 
alive,  remain  monuments  of  God's  mercy  in  the  midst  of  his  righteous 
judgments,  must  have  awakened  and  alarmed  the  most  secure  and  thought- 
less among  us,  and  have  made  us  feelingly  alive  to  every  sober  reflec- 
tion that  concerns  our  future  state  and  condition,  viz. :  death,  a  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  a  future  judgment,  and  the  opening  the  heavenly 
paradise — the  everlasting  kingdom  of  glory  to  the  redeemed  of  God — 
"  to  those  who  sleep  in  the  faith  of  Jesus."  For,  amidst  the  shafts  of 
Providence,  which  have  flown  so  thick  around  us  and  amongst  us,  where 
is  the  man  or  the  woman  in  this  assembly  whose  bosom  is  not  deeply 
pierced,  or  whose  tears  do  not  this  moment  flow,  for  the  loss  of  some 
of  those  who  were  lately  nearest  and  dearest  to  him  or  to  her — a  hus- 
band, a  wife,  a  father,  a  mother,  a  brother,  a  sister,  a  son,  a  daughter? 
For  me — ah!  my  throbbing  breast — deep,  deep  have  the  arrows* 
pierced;  yet  be  still,  in  just  resignation  to  his  unerring  will,  who  gives 
and  takes  away,  by  whom  we  live,  move,  and  have  our  being — be  still, 
while  we  proceed  in  the  further  review  of  this  mournful  group  of  de- 
parted friends  and  acquaintance  !  Who  is  there  among  us  who  does 
not  recall  to  memory  many  younger  and  stronger  than  themselves,  be- 
tween whose  summons  from  this  life  and  their  commitment  to  that  long 
home,  the  grave,  few  were  the  days  or  hours  that  intervened,  while  we 
yet  remain,  with  time  and  opportunity  offered,  to  examine  the  past  and 
to  think  of  the  future. 

To  assist  your  meditations  in  this  respect,  and  to  mingle  comfort  in 
our  bitter  cup  of  affliction,  I  have  chosen  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  which 
have  been  just  read  as  our  text ;  a  choice  which  I  have  the  rather  made, 
as  the  whole  volumes  of  inspiration  contain  no  words  more  evangelically 
comfortable  or  suitable  to  our  present  situation  ;  and,  as  I  trust,  the 
same  words  and  the  reflections  thereon  arising,  which,  through  God's 
grace,  I  have  found  experimentally  efficacious  to  pour  balm  into  my 
own  wounds,  while  yet  fresh  and  bleeding,  will,  through  the  same  grace, 
be  acceptable  and  effectual  among  you,  in  the  like  circumstances  ! 

The  text  naturally  divides  itself  into  the  following  heads,  each  of 
which  will  afford  subject-matter  for  at  least  one  discourse  : 

1st.  Considerations  on  death  ;  the  nature  and  cause  of  his  awful 
terrors ;  and  how,  through  Divine  assistance,  to  combat  and  conquer 
them  ;  to  allay  our  sorrows  for  our  departed  friends,  and  prepare  for  our 
own  departure. 

2d.  The  certainty  of  a  resurrection  of  the  body  from  the  grave; 
showing  that  death  is  but  a  temporary  evil,  and  that  our  sorrow  should 

*  The  author  lost  a  beloved  wife,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  among  women  ; 
whose  memory  remains  dear  to  all  who  knew  her.     She  died  October  23,  1793. 


384  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  \_l79l 

not  be  without  hope,  as  others  who  have  no  belief  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead. 

3d.  The  certainty  of  a  future  judgment,  and  the  award  of  an  eternity 
of  happiness  to  those  who  sleep  in  the  Lord,  or  in  the  faith  of  the 
Gospel — "  For  them  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  Him,  and 
so  we  shall  be  forever  with  the  Lord  !  " 

4th.  That,  from  all  these  considerations,  the  devout  Christian  may 
not  only  overcome  the  fear  of  death  in  himself,  but  derive  an  abundant 
source  of  consolation  for  the  death  of  others,  according  to  our  apostle, 
who,  in  the  sweetest  accents  of  evangelical  sympathy  and  love,  in  the 
last  verse  of  our  text  calls  us  to  "comfort  one  another  with  the  hopes, 
after  death  and  a  resurrection,  of  being  forever  with  the  Lord  !  " 

I  proceed  now  to  the  first  head  of  discourse  as  pointed  out  in  the 
text,  namely:  "Considerations  on  death,  and  how,  through  divine 
assistance,  to  subdue  and  overcome  his  mighty  terrors."  And  oh,  Thou 
almighty  fountain  of  all  wisdom  and  grace  and  heavenly  fortitude,  aid 
me  with  thy  divine  spirit,  that  the  great  and  awful  subjects  which  I  am 
to  handle  may  not  suffer  through  my  feeble  endeavors  ;  but  give  me, 
for  the  sake  of  Jesus  and  his  Gospel,  to  follow,  with  clear  and  unembar- 
rassed view,  the  steps  and  arguments  of  thy  divinely  enlightened 
apostle,  who  is  everywhere  superlatively  instructive  and  sublime,  but 
especially  when  he  opens  to  us  the  prospects  of  a  future  world.  Lo  ! 
he  stands,  though  with  his  feet  on  earth,  his  eye  steadfast  on  heaven, 
considering  death,  not  as  a  tyrant  sent  to  disturb  our  peace,  but  as  a 
messenger  of  God,  employed  to  "dissolve  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  that  we  may  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house,  which  is  from 
Heaven." 

"For  we  know,"  says  he  in  another  place,*  "that  if  our  earthly 
house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  an 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.  For  in  this  (earthly) 
house  we  groan,  earnestly  desiring  to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house 
which  is  from  Heaven." 

Brethren,  when  I  read  this  passage  from  our  blessed  apostle,  in  con- 
junction with  our  text,  as  well  as  many  others  expressive  of  the  true 
spirit  of  primitive  Christianity,  I  am  doubtful  (as  saith  an  old  commen- 
tator) whether  most  to  admire  the  exalted  temper  of  the  apostles  and 
first  followers  of  Christ,  or  to  deplore  the  low  and  desponding  spirit  of 
the  modern  professors  of  Christianity — so  heavenly  and  magnanimous 
were  the  former,  so  earthly  and  abject  the  latter  !  The  former  were 
always  raising  their  affections  to  things  above — to  their  "house  not 
made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens  ;  "  the  latter  too  often  immur- 
ing themselves  deeper  and  still  deeper  within  the  walls  of  their  "earthly 
house  of  this  tabernacle  !  " 

*  2  Cor.  v.  1,  2. 


1793]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  385 

And  whence  comes  this  difference  between  the  truly  primitive  and 
modern  spirit  of  professing  Christians?  Whence,  brethren,  but  from 
what  the  apostle  suggests?  The  former  considered  the  present  life  only 
as  a  pilgrimage,  and  this  whole  world  as  but  an  inn,  or  short  refreshing 
place,  in  their  way  to  the  regions  of  immortality  and  glory  !  They 
looked  upon  their  passage  thither  as  a  scene  of  perils — a  passage  through 
a  valley  of  sorrow  and  tears — and  that,  for  the  trial  of  their  faith  and 
exercise  of  their  hope,  they  were  called  to  a  constant  warfare  with  ene- 
mies both  within  and  without  them.  The  soul  they  considered  as  their 
truly  better  and  immortal  part,  worthy  of  all  their  care ;  the  body  but 
as  of  an  inferior  nature — a  tabernacle,  a  tent,  a  cottage,  an  earthen  ves- 
sel, a  mere  temporary  abode,  or  rather  the  prison-house  of  the  soul  ;  in 
itself  more  brittle  than  glass,  decaying  and  constantly  mouldering  away, 
subject  to  diseases,  pain  and  every  vicissitude  of  the  surrounding  ele- 
ments. And  thus,  daily  considering  the  vanity  and  the  emptiness  of 
earthly  things,  their  affections  were  more  and  more  weaned  from  this 
■world.  They  became  impatient  of  the  dross  of  body;  their  souls  pene- 
trated by  faith  through  the  clouds  of  this  mortality;  and  they  obtained 
some  foretaste  of  the  immense  good  things  laid  up  for  them  in  a  world 
to  come.  They  acquired  some  just  and  ravishing  conceptions  of  that 
building  of  God,  that  house  not  made  with  hands,  that  celestial  body, 
with  which  the  soul  was  to  be  united  (for  the  nourishment  of  their  hope 
and  the  exercise  of  their  charity)  in  the  mansions  of  glory;  and,  there- 
fore, far  from  being  awed  or  terrified  at  the  separation  of  the  soul  from 
the  body,  or  apprehensions  from  the  dissolution  of  their  earthly  taber- 
nacle, and  of  its  dust  mixing  again  with  its  kindred  dust,  they  groaned 
earnestly  within  themselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  that  is,  the  re- 
demption of  the  body,  that  they  might  be  clothed  upon  with  their 
heavenly  house,  "and  so  be  forever  with  the  Lord." 

But  can  we  say,  brethren,  that  this  is  the  general  temper  of  those  who 
call  themselves  Christians  in  the  present  day?  Can  we  say  that  we  are 
always  looking  forward  to  our  future  end?  Or  rather,  do  we  not  keep 
ourselves  blind  to  the  future,  ignorant  of  our  destiny,  or  without  any 
guesses  concerning  another  world?  We  rather  wish  to  consider  the 
present  as  our  only  world,  and  death  as  an  everlasting  sleep — a  total 
annihilation  of,  perhaps,  soul  and  body!  Wherefore,  if  we  think  of  an 
approaching  dissolution,  we  sorrow,  as  men  having  no  hope  beyond  the 
narrow  precincts  of  the  grave.  If  any  dark  glimmerings  of  another 
world  intrude  upon  our  quiet,  we  strive  to  stifle  the  divine  sparklings  in 
the  soul,  and  hate  to  converse  with  the  God  within  us,  or  think  of  any 
future  state.  And  thus,  far  from  rejoicing  at  the  notices  nature  gives 
of  an  approaching  dissolution  of  our  mortal  part ;  far  from  groaning 
earnestly  to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  immortal  house,  and  meeting 
death  in  the  full  hope  of  glory,  I  may  appeal  to  yourselves,  whether  the 
very  name  cf  death  be  not  as  a  thunder-stroke  to  us  !  We  startle,  we 
25 


386  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  ['793 

turn  pale,  we  tremble  before  him  as  the  king  of  terrors,  and  at  his  ap- 
proach we  cling  faster  and  still  faster  to  this  evanescent  speck  of  earth, 
loth  to  let  go  our  hold.  Few,  too  few,  consider  death  in  the  right 
view,  as  a  welcome  messenger  sent  from  God  to  summon  the  soul  (if, 
peradventure,  prepared)  to  heaven  and  glory.  Few  consider  that,  al- 
though his  marks  are  sure,  he  shoots  not  an  arrow  but  what  is  directed 
by  the  wisdom  of  our  adorable  Creator.  In  this  view  we  consider  him 
not ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  consider  him  as  a  cruel  tyrant,  come 
to  disturb  our  repose,  to  rob  us  of  our  joys  and  to  separate  us  from  all 
that  we  hold  dear.  We  look  upon  him  as  the  merciless  ravisher  of 
parents  from  children,  and  children  from  parents;  wives  from  husbands, 
and  husbands  from  wives.  We  view  him  as  the  despoiler  of  our  fortune, 
breaking  in  upon  all  our  busy  projects  and  best  prospects;  tearing  us 
from  our  dearest  friends  and  relatives,  levelling  our  fame  and  proudest 
honors  with  the  dust,  turning  our  beauty  into  deformity,  our  strength 
into  rottenness  and  our  very  names  into  oblivion.  We  behold  him 
dealing  with  others  as  with  ourselves,  neither  sparing  the  young  nor  the 
old,  the  feeble  nor  the  strong,  the  rich  nor  the  poor,  the  beggar  in  his 
rags,  nor  the  proudest  ruler  in  his  purple.  We  find  him  neither  to  be 
regardful  of  our  pride,  nor  to  be  soothed  by  our  flattery,  tamed  by  our 
entreaties,  bribed  by  our  benefits,  softened  by  our  lamentations,  nor 
diverted  by  accident  or  length  of  time.  His  weapons  of  destruction 
are  numerous,  and  we  are  unable  to  draw  one  of  them  from  his  grip. 
A  thousand  ministers  of  vengeance  attend  his  call — sword,  pestilence, 
famine  and  fell  disease;  the  air,  the  earth,  the  sea,  the  fire,  and  the 
beasts  of  the  field,  are  the  executioners  of  his  will  against  man;  and, 
more  dreadful  to  tell,  man  himself — monstrous,  depraved  man — becomes 
the  minister  of  death  against  his  fellow-man  !  With  scorns  and  with 
wrongs,  with  imprisonments,  with  torments,  with  poisons  and  deadly 
engines  of  destruction,  man  preys  upon  man,  at  thy  call,  O  Death,  and 
heaps  up  thy  vast  triumphs  !  Hence  it  is  that  thou  art  so  terrible,  and 
that  we  startle  at  thy  name,  and  tremble  at  thy  approach.  Yet  still,  by 
the  due  use  of  reason,  enlightened  by  the  blessed  considerations  and 
doctrines  of  our  text,  after  the  example  of  the  apostles  and  saints  and 
pure  professors  of  Christianity  in  every  age,  death  might  be  disarmed 
of  his  sting  and  spoiled  of  his  victory! 

If  to  die  were  only  the  lot  of  a  few,  we  might  repine  and  startle  at 
the  partial  decree.  But  since  no  age  that  is  past  hath  been  exempted 
from  his  strokes,  nor  shall  any  age  that  is  to  come,  why  should  we,  with 
unavailing  sorrow  and  unprofitable  stubbornness,  think  to  oppose  the 
universal  decree,  "Dust  thou  art,  and  to  dust  thou  shalt  return?" 
Let  us  think  what  millions  have  trod  the  path  of  death  before  us,  and 
what  millions  are  yet  to  follow!  Let  us  think  of  the  instability  of  all 
things,  temporary  and  sublunary!  Even  kingdoms  and  mighty  empires 
have  submitted  to  their  fatal  periods !     Great  cities  lie  buried  in  the 


1795]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  3S7 

dust  !  Proud  towers  and  pyramids,  the  wonders  of  the  world  and  the 
pride  of  ages,  are  overthrown  and  trampled  under  foot  !  Holy  temples 
and  altars,  and  those  also  who  have  ministered  before  them,  have  shared 
the  general  doom  !  And  this  great  fabric  of  the  world  itself,  the  sun, 
the  moon  and  the  stars,  shall  submit  to  death,  or  a  change  similar  to 
death;  yet,  like  the  body  of  man,  peradventure,  to  be  renewed  again, 
and  kindled  up  into  fresh  and  everlasting  lustre  ! 

Since,  then,  the  most  solid  and  sumptuous  works  of  man,  and  even 
this  glorious  creation,  the  work  of  God  himself,  are  doomed  to  changes, 
to  decay  and  to  death,  what  are  we,  poor  earthlings  and  creatures  of  a 
day,  to  hope  for  an  everlasting  continuance  amidst  this  transient  and 
perishable  scene  ?  Or  why  should  we  be  afraid  when  our  change  draws 
near  ? 

The  true  reason  is,  "Our  want  of  faith  in  God  and  union  with  Christ 
Jesus,  through  the  grace  of  his  divine  spirit."  We  do  not  imitate  those 
blessed  saints  and  first  followers  of  Christ,  who  are  described  in  our 
text,  by  striving  to  disentangle  our  souls  and  thoughts  from  this  world, 
and  to  send  them  forward  in  earnest  longings  after  heaven  and  immor- 
tality.  We  do  not  seat  ourselves  by  faith  in  the  company  of  angels  and 
archangels;  nor  seek  to  anticipate  the  joys  of  the  life  to  come.  Our 
conversation  is  not  in  heaven,  nor  are  we  looking  to  our  Redeemer 
from  thence ;  nor  do  our  souls  thirst  nor  our  flesh  long  after  the  living 
God. 

But,  on  the  contrary,  like  unweaned  babes,  we  hang  upon  the  breasts 
of  this  earth.  We  suck  poison  out  of  it  to  our  very  souls;  we  cleave  to 
it — we  walk — nay,  we  grovel  upon  our  bellies  here,  as  unclean  beasts, 
instead  of  lifting  our  eyes  to  heaven  with  the  holy  pride  and  ambition 
of  angels  ! 

Hence,  then,  comes  our  fear  of  death,  because  we  seek  to  have  our 
portion  in  this  world,  and  not  in  the  world  to  come,  never  considering 
what  comfortable  words  Christ  tells  us,  that  "  if  any  man  keep  his  say- 
ings he  shall  never  see  death;"  for  Christ  hath  slain  death,  and 
'  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  by  the  gospel." 

The  sting  of  death  is  sin,  and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  grave;  but 
our  union  with  Christ  gives  us  the  victory.  If  we  die  in  the  faith  of 
Jesus,  death  is  only  a  sleep  in  his  bosom,  and  the  grave  is  only  the 
vestry-room,  where  we  enter  (as  we  said  before)  to  put  off  the  old  rags 
of  our  mortality,  to  be  clothed  upon  anew,  and  to  come  forth,  fresh  and 
refulgent,  in  the  rich  dress  and  embroidery  of  heaven. 

It  shall  be  my  endeavor  (ye  mournful  brethren  and  sisters),  in  my 
subsequent  occasional  discourses  before  you,  from  this  luminous  text;  to 
examine  and  weigh,  in  the  scales  of  Religion,  Reason  and  Philosophy, 
those  good  things,  commonly  so-called,  by  which  too  many  are  drawn 
(as  already  expressed)  to  "  hang  upon  the  breasts  of  this  world,  and  to 
suck  poison  from  them  to  their  very  souls. "     I  shall   further  strive  to 


388  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [  1 793 

offer  such  considerations  as,  under  divine  grace,  may  disentangle  our 
thoughts,  and  wean  our  souls  from  too  great  an  attachment  to  the 
things  of  this  world  and  send  them  forward  to  another  world  in  earnest 
longings  after  immortality;  anticipating  the  joys  above,  and  seating 
ourselves  by  faith  in  the  company  of  angels  and  archangels ;  having  our 
conversation  in  heaven,  looking  for  the  coming  of  our  Lord,  and  pant- 
ing to  be  with  him  forever  ! 

The  next  discourse  seems  to  have  been  attended,  in  a  more  par- 
ticular way,  by  the  younger  class  of  people.  It  is  from  the  same 
texts  as  the  former  one,  and  on  the  same  general  subject — "  How, 
through  divine  assistance,  we  may  subdue  the  fear  of  death." 
Passing  over — as  we  must  do  for  want  of  space — the  earlier  parts 
of  the  discourse,  we  come  to  a  special  address  to  the  young.  Its 
style  recalls  the  full  dress  and  form,  with  the  gentility,  unhappily, 
with  both  too  much  departed,  of  days  just  remembered  by  our- 
selves. 

Oh,  ye  youth  of  these  rising,  and  yet  happy,  American  States  !  for 
whose  admonition,  instruction,  and  illumination  the  past  and  best  part 
of  my  life  has  been  devoted,  through  a  long  term  of  years;  receive,  or 
rather  bear,  the  repetition  of  a  lesson,  perhaps  the  last,  of  old  age  ! 

Boast  not,  therefore,  of  your  youth  or  strength  or  beauty,  but  in  the 
hopes  you  entertain,  and  the  resolution  you  have  formed  of  preparing 
yourselves,  to  live  a  life  of  future  usefulness,  and  to  animate  you  in  this 
resolution,  look  forward  to  the  glorious  scenes  in  which  you  will  be 
called  to  act  your  part;  and  look  back  also  "to  the  rock  from  whence 
you  were  hewed,  and  the  hole  of  the  pit  from  whence  you  were 
digged."*  Think  of  the  steps  by  which  your  virtuous  and  frugal 
ancestors  rose  into  consideration,  and  say  whether  you  can  find  one  of 
their  number  that  attained  to  any  eminence  but  by  virtue  and  industry 
in  some  settled  calling  or  profession.  Spurn  from  you,  betimes,  the 
syren's  sloth  and  idleness,  and  seek  to  come  forth  on  the  theatre 
assigned  to  you,  all  energy  and  action,  in  the  sight  of  mortal  and  im- 
mortal powers,  striving  to  fill  your  post  with  diligence  and  dignity — 
abiding  therein,  but  abiding  with  God !  Spurn  from  you  also  the  love 
of  false  pleasure,  and  seek  to  make  a  just  estimate  of  that  pleasure, 
which  God  in  his  goodness  has  ordained  as  the  true  alloy  of  our  cares, 
and  the  reward  of  a  virtuous  course  of  action  ! 

If  vou  seek  pleasure,  let  it  be  the  pleasure  of  your  whole  nature  and 
existence,  considered  with  respect  both  to  time  and  eternity!  And  in 
this  view,  the  pleasure  of  a  rational  being,  made  in  the  image  of  his 

*  Isaiah  li.  I. 


1793]  SEV.    WILLIAM  SMITH.    D.    D.  389 

Creator,  ordained  to  bear  his  head  on  high,  and  to  hold  sacred  inter- 
course with  the  Father  of  all — is  not  to  stifle  the  sigh  for  happiness  im- 
planted in  his  bosom,  nor  bury  the  vital  principle  of  action,  in  the  in- 
ordinate pursuit  of  animal  gratifications,  which  serve  for  little  else  but 
to  enervate  the  soul  and  depress  its  native  aspirations  after  the  divine 
life.  It  is  not  to  drink  the  deadly  draught  of  poison,  although  served 
up  to  us  in  a  golden  cup.  It  is  not  to  dance  the  giddy  round  of  noisy 
revel,  thoughtless  whence  we  came,  or  whither  we  are  going  !  It  is  not 
to  riot  in  broad  day,  in  practices  which  our  sober  fathers  would  have 
blushed  to  witness  in  secret.  It  is  not  to  pursue  phantom  after  phan- 
tom, like  airy  bubbles,  bursting  in  the  grasp.  Nor  is  it  to  torture  inven- 
tion after  invention,  in  contriving  expedients  to  keep  animal  joy  alive, 
till  the  palled  sense  recoils,  and  refuses  the  hated  load  !  No,  says  the 
wise  Solomon,  who  spoke  from  experience,  and  had  sought  pleasure  and 
happiness  through  every  avenue  of  life — no,  says  he — "Thou  mayest  re- 
joice, O  young  man,  and  thy  heart  may  cheer  thee  in  the  days  of  thy 
youth,  whilst  thou  walkest  in  the  ways  of  thy  heart;  but  for  all  these 
things,  know  that  God  will  bring  thee  into  judgment"  * — yea,  certainly 
judgment  in  another  world,  and  probably  judgment  in  this — for  if  we 
take  a  step  among  the  sons  and  daughters  of  worldly  pleasure,  though 
all  seems  so  gay  and  joyous  without,  yet  how  different  if  we  could  look 
within  !  What  distraction,  weakness  and  dissipation  of  thought  ?  What 
fretfulness,  jealousies  and  heart-burnings  of  disappointed  pride,  dim- 
ming the  fair  eye  of  fairest  beauty?  What  incumbrances  of  fortune, 
what  embarrassments  of  business,  what  shame,  remorse  and  painful  re- 
flections for  neglected  duties  and  deserted  families ;  only  to  be  avoided 
by  suppressing  or  drowning  the  voice  of  reason,  conscience  and  religion 
by  a  speedy  return  to  the  round  of  giddy  revel,  till  at  last  health  and 
fame  and  the  fair  paternal  inheritance  are  shipwrecked  at  their  feet.  I 
tremble  to  speak  the  rest.  What  can  we  behold,  then,  but  wretchedness 
complete?  "Ancestors  disgraced,  posterity  ruined;  behind,  nothing 
but  guilt  and  shame,  and  before,  nothing  but  inextricable  misery!  .  .  ." 

The  true  pleasures,  the  sacred,  substantial  never-fading  bliss  of  all  who 
are  born  into  this  world — high  and  low,  old  and  young,  is  to  exert  the 
first  efforts  of  their  reason,  guided  by  religion  and  revelation,  to  con- 
sider for  what  end  they  were  sent  into  it,  and  to  discharge  their  part  in 
this  life  faithfully,  seeking  to  prepare,  and  not  afraid  to  take  their  de- 
parture for  a  better,  always  bearing  in  mind  that  the  short  and  transient 
now  bears  on  its  fleeting  wing  an  eternity  of  bliss  or  woe. 

Let  no  age  or  condition  of  life  thrust  these  serious  truths  from  the 
heart.  Trust  not  to  your  youth  or  strength,  ye  whom  I  now  more  im- 
mediately address.     Look  but  a  few  months  back,  and   consider  how 

*  Eccl.  xi.  9. 


390  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l793 

many  of  your  age  have  in  that  short  period  been  called  to  an  eternal 
world,  and  what  a  mournful  cry  would  have  been  heard,  what  earnest 
calls  to  repentance  and  sorrow  for  time  misspent  would  have  resounded 
through  this  city,  had  it  pleased  God  then  to  withdraw  the  veil,  and 
permit  them  to  behold  their  sudden  destiny. 

Ye  sons  of  pleasure,  ye  who  glory  in  your  health  and  strength,  who 
laugh  at  sobriety,  temperance  and  chastity,  who  count  many  days  to 
come,  and  set  death  not  only  at  a  distance,  but  even  at  defiance — if 
any  such  can  indeed  remain  among  us  after  the  late  awful  warnings — ■ 
think  of  these  truths  and  suppose  it  possible,  nay  probable,  that  on 
some  day,  not  far  distant,  you  may  be  caded  upon  with  all  your  unre- 
pented  sins  about  you,  laid  gasping  in  the  burning  heat  of  a  mortal  fever, 
and  make  your  shameful  exit,  a  martyr  to  false  pleasure,  under  the 
dreadful  curse  which  heaven  has  entailed  upon  intemperance. 

With  the  impression  of  these  truths,  leaving  the  devotees  of  pleasure 
and  worldly  joys  among  the  young  and  gay  for  the  present,  I  shall  pro- 
ceed in  my  next  discourse  to  estimate  the  bliss  of  those  of  higher  ranks 
and  ages,  hoping  the  young  also,  if  they  hope  for  rank  and  age,  will 
continue  among  the  number  of  patient  hearers.     Amen  ! 

The  next  sermon  was  preached  December  12th,  1793,  on  the 
day  which  we  have  already  spoken  of  as  that  for  which  Dr.  Smith 
drew  a  Proclamation  at  the  request  of  Governor  Mifflin,  appoint- 
ing it  a  day  of  general  humiliation,  thanksgiving  and  prayer  for 
the  public  deliverance  from  the  rage  of  the  late  calamity. 

The  text,  which  the  preacher  remarks  is  changed  for  the  day's 
solemnity,  while  the  subject  is  not  changed,  is  from  Psalm  lxxviii. 
verse  34,  passim  to  verse  50  : 

When  He  slew  them,  then  they  sought  Him  ;  and  they  returned,  and  inquired  early 
after  God :  and  they  remembered  that  God  was  their  Rock,  and  the  High  God 
their  Redeemer.  Nevertheless,  they  did  but  flatter  Him  with  their  mouth,  and  they 
lied  unto  him  with  their  tongues  :  For  their  heart  was  not  right  with  Him,  neither  were 
they  steadfast  in  His  covenant.  They  turned  back  and  tempted  God — they  remembered 
not  His  hand,  nor  the  day  when  He  delivered  them  from  the  enemy.  Wherefore  He 
cast  upon  them  the  fierceness  of  His  anger,  wrath  and  indignation  and  trouble,  by  send- 
ing evil  angels  among  them.  He  made  a  way  to  his  anger,  and  spared  not  their  souls 
from  death,  but  gave  their  life  over  to  the  pestilence. 

"That  there  is  a  particular  as  well  as  a  general  providence,"  the 
preacher  remarks  in  this  discourse,  "over  the  affairs  of  individual 
men,  as  well  as  whole  nations;  and  that  the  Almighty  holds  their 
fate  subject  to  his  own  controlling  power,  and  weighs  it  in  the 
tremendous  balance  of  his  unerring  wisdom  and  justice,  is  a  truth 


1/93]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  39I 

which  will  not  be  denied  by  any  man  who  professes  to  believe  in 
the  existence  of  God." 

"In  vain,"  he  continues,  "arc  we  assembled  on  this  solemn  day, 
if  it  might  be  considered  by  any  that  the  civil  ordinance  which 
convokes  us  is  only  a  political  engine  or  device  to  awe  and  con- 
trol the  vulgar  mind,  and  not  a  certain  unequivocal  proof 'that,  as 
a  people,  we  acknowledge  a  God  over  all ;  supreme,  almighty,  and 
enjoying  all  perfections.'  It  may  be  hoped,  then,"  he  proceeds, 
"  that  the  threshold  of  this  holy  place  has  not  been  profaned  this 
day  by  the  unhallowed  step  of  a  man  or  a  woman  who  doth  not 
believe  in  the  heart,  as  well  as  approach  to  confess  with  the  lips, 
'that  there  is  a  God  who  governs  the  affairs  of  his  creatures  in  this 
world,  and  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment were  graciously  given,  by  his  divine  inspiration  and  authority, 
to  guide  us  in  the  right  way  through  the  intricate  path  of  life  and 
the  mazes  of  a  mysterious  Providence.' 

"The  dealings  of  the  Almighty,  therefore,"  he  adds,  "with  a 
people  who  acknowledge  (as  we  do)  the  sovereign  and  uncon- 
trollable power  of  God's  special  as  well  as  general  providence,  in 
ordering  the  affairs  of  men,  will  be  a  fit  subject  of  our  present 
meditations;  and  the  more  to  be  chosen,  as  we  shall  have  for  our 
guide  a  history  authenticated  on  the  records  of  Holy  Scripture." 

The  preacher  then  traces  the  history  of  the  Jews,  upon  which 
his  text,  as  he  remarks,  yields  a  prominent  and  irrefragable  com- 
mentary, as  well  as  a  striking  similitude  to  our  own  history  in 
many  great  and  leading  circumstances. 

He  notes  that  the  Jews  had  for  many  years  been  without  a  gov- 
ernment of  their  own,  and  sojourned  in  a  foreign  land,  reduced  to 
a  condition  no  better  than  that  of  the  worst  and  most  degraded 
slaves;  until,  at  last,  the  Almighty  had  compassion  on  their  mis- 
eries, and  by  the  hand  of  Moses  delivered  them  from  the  rod  of 
Pharaoh,  and  conducted  them  through  the  waves  of  the  Red  Sea, 
and  a  perilous  wilderness,  to  the  land  promised  to  their  forefather 
Abraham  and  his  seed  forever.*  Like  the  Jews,  our  fathers  were 
conducted  by  the  hand  of  God  through  a  perilous  ocean,  and 
penetrated  into  a  wilderness  to  hew  out  for  themselves  settlements 
and  improve  them  into  a  Canaan  for  the  benefit  of  their  posterity. 

"-Sec  Gen.  xiii.  14,  and  xxvi.  4.,  5. 


392  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [^793 

By  the  arm  of  the  Almighty,  while  they  were  yet  a  small  people, 
they  were  protected  from  surrounding  dangers — the  savages  of  the 
wilderness  became  their  friends,  and  they  grew  up  and  multiplied 
into  a  great  and  prosperous  people.  How  far  we  had  followed  the 
example  of  the  Jews,  in  our  backslidings  and  forgetfulness  of  the 
mercies  of  God,  after  we  became  a  nation,  would  appear  from  a 
brief  statement  of  their  conduct,  after  they  became  a  nation,  in  the 
promised  land.     This  history  the  preacher  then  traces. 

"The  Chronicles  of  their  kings,  rulers  and  judges  were  a  stand- 
ing testimony,"  says  the  preacher,  "of  their  ingratitude  and  for- 
getfulness of  God,  their  inattention  to  his  providence  and  neglect 
of  amendment;  continuing  hardened  in  their  iniquity  amidst  his 
various  judgments  and  visitations,  intended  in  mercy  and  long- 
suffering  to  lead  them  to  reformation.  The  prophecies  of  their 
prophets — were  they  not  all  to  the  like  purpose  ?  Either  filled 
with  denunciations  of  judgments  upon  their  apostasy  from  God, 
promises  of  forgiveness  upon  their  repentance  and  amendment,  or 
threatening  of  total  ruin  and  destruction,  unless  they  turned  from 
the  evil  of  their  ways,  to  do  that  which  is  lawful  and  right! 

"Many  and  various,"  he  adds,  "were  the  judgments  inflicted 
on  this  people  by  the  hand  of  Providence,  for  the  punishment  of 
their  transgressions;  but  the  four  sorest,  in  extreme  cases,  when 
they  became  wholly  hardened  in  their  iniquity,  were  'the  Sword 
and  the  Famine,  and  the  noisome  Beast  (to  infest  a  desolate  land), 
and  the  Pestilence,  to  cut  off  from  it  (by  one  dreadful  visitation) 
both  man  and  beast.'  * 

"  The  first  mentioned  of  those  four  sore  judgments,  the  sword, 
hath  been  sent,"  he  observes,  "  upon  us  not  only  by  the  great 
nation  from  which  our  fathers  and  many  of  ourselves  originated, 
but  many  a  time  likewise  by  the  savage  of  the  wilderness  around 
us."  And  giving  way  to  an  expression  of  Federal  politics,  and 
to  ancient  dislike  of  France,  now  under  Jacobin  rule,  more  dan- 
gerous than  in  the  days  of  any  Louis,  he  adds : 

Nor  is  it  foreign  to  our  purpose,  on  this  solemn  day,  to  contemplate 
the  possibility,  and  even  probability,  of  a  sword  against  us  from  another 
great  nation,  once  gratefully  caressed,  and  never  ungratefully  offended, 
by  us  as  a  people. 

*  Ezek.  xiv.  21. 


1793]  RKV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.   D.  393 

Whether  the  great  nation  last  mentioned  hath  in  truth  meditated  any 
measures  inimical  to  our  liberty  and  independence,  it  would  be  wrong 
to  pronounce  absolutely  in  this  sacred  place.  But  we  are  justified  in 
declaring  our  apprehensions  and  fears  on  this  head ;  encouraged  and 
invited,  as  that  nation  hath  been,  to  the  attempt,  by  the  wild  principles 
and  restless  conduct  of  their  partisans  here,  impatient  of  all  rule  and 
authority,  always  seeking  innovations,  and  never  content  long  with  any 
frame  of  government. 

From  the  second  and  third  of  the  sore  evils  by  which  the  Jews 
were  sometimes  punished,  namely :  the  Famine  and  the  noisome 
Beast,  and  blast  on  the  herbage  and  fruits  of  the  earth,  promotive 
of  famine,  the  Almighty  had  been  graciously  pleased  hitherto  to 
spare  us. 

The  fourth  and  last  sore  evil,  the  Pestilence,  had  indeed  been 
permitted,  or  ordained,  by  Providence  to  visit  our  metropolis,  and 
some  others  of  the  great  towns  and  cities  of  the  United  States  ; 
but,  in  the  present  year,  with  a  degree  of  severity  and  extensive 
calamity  never  experienced  before.  "  Blessed  be  God,"  he  says, 
"  its  rage  is  now  graciously  stayed,  leaving  us,  indeed,  in  copious 
tears,  to  the  memory  of  departed  friends  and  relatives."  "And,  oh ! " 
he  adds,  "  let  not  those  tears  be  too  soon  dried  up,  without  deep 
meditation  and  serious  improvement  of  the  warnings  given  us." 

After  a  reference  in  several  particulars  to  the  history  of  the 
Jews,  the  preacher  says : 

What  history,  ancient  or  modern,  can  exhibit  a  narration  so  concise 
and  dignified,  so  marked  with  authentic  testimony  of  the  special  inter- 
position of  Goi,  in  his  wise  providence,  to  punish  whole  nations, 
rulers  as  well  as  people,  even  in  this  world,  for  the  chastisement  of  their 
sins,  and  for  their  reformation  and  amendment? 

What  has  been  already  stated  gives  the  fullest  sanction  to  this  day's 
solemnity,  and  leads  us  directly  to  our  main  business  and  duty  upon  the 
great  occasion,  namely:  the  most  serious  consideration  and  meditation 
upon  our  own  ways  and  works,  and  the  improvement  which,  as  a  Chris- 
tian people,  it  becomes  us  to  make,  of  our  deliverance  from  the  late 
awful  calamity  with  which  it  pleased  Almighty  God,  in  his  sovereign 
wisdom,  to  afflict  this  city  and  its  vicinity. 

The  means  of  improvement  pointed  out  and  recommended  by  public 
authority,*  and  sanctioned  by  the  voice  and  word  of  God,  are : 

*  See  an  abstract  of  the  Proclamation,  p.  378. 


394  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  |J793 

The  acknowledgment  of  his  divine  power  and  goodness,  in  the  deepest  humiliation 
and  abasement  of  soul ;  the  sincerest  confession  of  our  manifold  sins  and  transgressions 
of  our  duty;  contrition  and  sorrow  for  the  neglect  and  forgetfulness  of  God's  former 
mercies;  earnest  repentance  and  supplications  for  forgiveness,  joined  to  sincere  pur- 
poses and  steadfast  resolutions  of  future  amendment  and  obedience  to  his  holy  will 
and  laws. 

Thus  humbled,  prepared  and  melted  into  love  and  gratitude,  by  a 
due  sense  of  "God's  mercies  and  long-sufferings  to  us  ward  (He  not 
being  willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  re- 
pentance*)," our  prayers,  praises  and  thanksgivings  this  day,  we  trust, 
will  ascend  as  a  sweet  incense  and  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  before 
the  throne  of  his  grace.  But,  without  this  preparation  of  the  heart,  if 
we  could  pray  and  praise  and  give  thanks  with  the  tongue  and  voice  of 
angels,  it  would  all  be  vain  and  empty — nothing  more  than  as  sounding 
brass,  or  the  tinkling  cymbal. f 

In  this  preparatory  part  of  our  work,  therefore,  let  us  in  good  earnest 
enter  into  our  own  hearts,  examine  their  plagues,  as  in  the  presence  of 
the  Almighty,  and  not  deceive  ourselves,  or  think  we  can  deceive  him 
dike  the  people  in  our  text)  by  "flattering  him  with  our  mouth,  and 
lying  unto  him  with  our  tongues,  while  our  hearts  are  not  right  with 
him,  and  we  are  not  steadfast  in  his  covenant,"  made  with  our 
fathers,  nor  in  our  purpose  of  future  obedience  to  his  holy  laws  and 
commandments. 

But,  more  especially,  this  becomes  the  duty  of  those  who  appear  as 
the  preachers  of  righteousness — the  ministers  and  messengers  of  God 
(of  every  degree  and  denomination ) — to  stand  forth,  awfully  impressed 
with  the  weight  of  their  subject,  and  not  to  be  afraid  of  the  faces  of 
men,  but  to  speak  boldly,  even  to  authorities  and  dignities  and 
powers;  not  to  deal  treacherously,  or  seek  "to  heal  the  hurt  of  the 
daughter  of  God's  people  slightly,  with  the  enticing  words  of  man's 
eloquence,  'saying,  Peace,  Peace,  when  there  is  no  peace; 'J  but  to 
probe  the  wounds  to  the  bottom,  by  means  of  '  the  word  of  God,  which 
is  quick  and  powerful,  and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  piercing 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and 
marrow,  and  is  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.'  " 

But  although  it  falls  to  our  lot,  in  preaching  repentance,  on  this  great 
occasion,  more  immediately  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia, who  were  among  the  primary  and  chief  sufferers  under  the  late 
awful  visitation  of  the  Almighty ;  and  although  great  and  manifold  are 
the  sins  for  which,  in  his  righteous  judgments,  He  might  have  inflicted 
this  calamity  upon  us  ;  yet  it  ought  not  to  be  considered  that  it  was  for 
our  reproof  and  sins  only,  but  those  of  United  America,  that  the  Lord 
chose  us  as  among  the  first  to  speak  to  in  his  fierce  anger.     The  appli- 

*2  Peter  iii.  9.  f  I  Cor.  xiii.  1.  J  Jer.  vi.  14.  ||  Ileb.  iv.  12, 


1793]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  395 

cation  of  our  Saviour's  doctrine,  preaching  repentance,  upon  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  Galileans  and  others,*  may  be  allowed  here. 

"'Suppose  ye,'  says  our  Lord,  'that  those  Galileans,  whose  blood 
Pilate  mingled  with  their  sacrifices,  were  sinners  above  all  the  Galileans, 
because  they  suffered  such  things?  I  tell  you,  Nay;  but  except  ye 
repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish.  Or  those  eighteen  upon  whom  the 
Tower  in  Siloam  fell,  and  slew  them,  think  ye  that  they  were  sinners 
above  all  men  that  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  ?  I  tell  you,  Nay ;  but  except 
ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 

Thus  warranted  by  the  preaching  and  doctrine  of  the  great  Author 
of  our  salvation,  to  consider  particular  punishments  as  general  warnings, 
the  remainder  of  my  discourse  will  be  addressed  to  the  whole  body  of 
citizens,  rulers  as  well  as  people,  in  these  United  States.  And  to  this 
I  consider  myself  as  more  especially  called,  being  honored  with  an 
audience  so  numerous  and  respectable,  among  whom  I  behold  the 
Father  of  these  United  States,  and  many  other  characters  of  the  first 
impression,  whose  exemplary  virtue  and  piety  must  strike  deep  into  the 
future  prosperity  and  glory  of  our  rising  American  empire — an  empire 
which,  under  the  protection  and  favor  of  divine  Providence,  has  laid  the 
foundation  of  all  that  can  adorn  and  dignify  man  in  the  present  world, 
and  guide  him  forward  in  preparations  for  the  acquisition  and  enjoy- 
ment of  glory,  honor  and  immortality  in  a  world  to  come  ! 

The  preacher  now  applies  the  teachings  which  the  Scriptural 
history  of  the  Jewish  nation  gives  as  to  our  own  country.  And, 
heaven  knows,  if  my  ancestor's  remarks  were  applicable  to  the 
United  States  in  the  apostolic  days  of  Washington,  one  thousand 
times  more  applicable  are  they  in  these  licentious  and  degraded 
times  ! 

Keeping  in  view,  therefore,  the  history  of  the  people  of  Israel,  and 
taking  up  the  parallel  between  God's  providence  and  dealing  with  re- 
spect to  them  and  ourselves,  I  may  be  allowed  to  recall  to  your  mind 
those  times  when  our  ancestors  were  but  a  small  people  in  this  land  ; 
how  the  Almighty  smoothed  their  passage  to  it  through  the  dangers  of 
the  stormy  ocean  ;  how  he  planted  and  supported  them  in  a  wilderness, 
and  made  the  savage  beasts,  and  men  more  savage  than  they,  who  were 
able  in  a  moment  to  destroy  them,  to  become  their  friends ;  command- 
ing the  solitary  places  to  be  glad  around  them,  and  the  desert  to  rejoice 
and  blossom  as  the  rose. 

I  might  describe  to  you  the  progress  of  their  civilization  and  happi- 
ness, and  show,  that  having  brought  the  pure  Word  of  God  in  their 
hand,  the  legacy  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  their  chief  riches,  they  were 

*  Luke  xiii.  1-5. 


396  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [ 1 793 

not  ashamed  of  its  doctrines,  nor  to  acknowledge  the  goodness  of  the 
Almighty,  by  promoting  the  ordinances  of  his  religion;  by  making  and 
executing  laws  for  its  support,  and  for  the  orderly  administration  of  jus- 
tice, constantly  striving,  by  the  purity  of  their  lives,  the  simplicity  of 
their  manners,  their  love  of  truth  and  of  one  another,  to  give  an  ex- 
ample to  their  children  of  their  obedience  to  the  divine  laws  and  their 
zeal  for  the  prosperity  of  their  country. 

And  when  thus,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  they  had  been  pro- 
ceeding from  strength  to  strength,  and  flourishing  under  this  simplicity 
of  manners  and  regard  to  true  religion,  I  might  lead  your  attention  to 
what  the  Lord  did  for  us,  their  posterity,  when  we  were  called  to 
struggle  through  blood  and  to  contend  for  our  dearest  and  most  sacred 
rights.  How  numerous  were  the  instances  of  his  divine  favor  and  in- 
terposition, in  the  establishment  of  our  civil  liberties  and  independence, 
assuring  to  us  and  our  posterity  every  civil  blessing,  together  with  the  free 
exercise  of  our  holy  religion,  according  to  the  rights  of  conscience, 
under  a  government  of  laws  and  a  constitution  of  our  own  happy  choice, 
there  being  none  to  make  us  afraid. 

But  what  has  been  our  sense  or  improvement  of  those  numerous  and 
invaluable  blessings  which  the  Almighty,  with  so  liberal  a  hand,  hath 
even  heaped  upon  us?  Let  us  not  be  alarmed  at  the  question,  nor 
shrink  from  the  answer. 

May  it  not  be  asked,  then,  of  what  avail  is  it  that  we  boast  of  our 
frames  of  government,  and  that  we  are  blessed  with  civil  liberty,  accord- 
ing to  our  highest  conceptions  of  the  name,  if  we  know  not  how  to 
respect  the  laws,  and  to  distinguish  liberty  from  licentiousness?  If  there 
remain  those  among  us  who,  from  pride,  self-interest  and  the  lust  of 
power,  cannot  rest  contented  with  a  wise  and  efficacious  system  of  joint 
government;  but  still  pursuing  something  new,  and  adapted  to  their 
own  phantasies,  seek  rather  no  government  at  all,  or  a  government  of 
such  variant  and  discordant  particles  as  to  produce  a  Babel  of  confu- 
sion, rather  than  a  Jerusalem,  or  city  of  God,  happy  and  united  within 
itself! 

What  avails  it  that  God  hath  given  us  peace  with  all  foreign  states 
and  powers,  if  with  difficulty  we  are  to  be  restrained  from  rushing  vol- 
untarily into  the  horrid  scenes  of  blood  and  devastation  in  the  old 
world  from  which  God  hath  graciously  set  us  at  a  distance;  and  where 
our  feeble  strength  would  scarcely  weigh  a  grain  in  either  balance,  but 
might  inevitably  involve  us  in  self-destruction? 

What  avails  it  that  we  are  delivered  from  one  late  and  great  calamity, 
if  we  are  not  delivered  from  sin,  which  is  the  greatest  calamity  of  all? 

What  avails  it  that  God  hath  blessed  us  with  a  fruitful  country,  a 
happy  climate  and  bountiful  seasons,  if,  instead  of  industry,  moderation 
of  mind,  thankfulness  to  heaven  and  a  due  improvement  of  His  bles- 
sings, we  are  sapping  the  foundations  of  all  our  future  happiness  as  a 


1793]  X£F.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  2)97 

people,  by  luxury,  pride,  idleness,  dissipation  and  the  eager  pursuit  of 
false  pleasure,  with  its  never-failing  attendants:  infidelity  and  the  scan- 
dalous neglect  of  religion,  and  profanation  of  the  Lord's  day! 

This  was  one  of  the  crying  sins  of  the  Jews,  for  which  the  severest 
judgments  were  denounced  against  them:  "I  saw,  in  those  days,  in 
Judah,"  says  Nehemiah,  "some  treading  wine  presses  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  bringing  in  sheaves,  and  lading  asses;  as  also  wine,  grapes  and  figs, 
and  all  manner  of  burdens,  which  they  brought  into  Jerusalem  on  the 
Sabbath  day.  And  there  dwelt  also  men  of  Tyre  therein,  who  brought 
fish,  and  all  manner  of  ware,  and  sold  on  the  Sabbath,  to  the  children 
of  Judah,  and  in  Jerusalem.  Then  I  contended  with  the  nobles  of 
Judah,  and  said  unto  them,  What  evil  thing  is  this  that  ye  do,  and  pro- 
fane the  Sabbath  day?  Did  not  your  fathers  thus,  and  did  not  our  God 
bring  all  this  evil  upon  us,  and  upon  this  city?  Yet  you  bring  more 
wrath  upon  Israel  by  profaning  the  Sabbath."* 

But,  notwithstanding  all  these  judgments,  this  evil  continued  among 
that  people  until  our  Saviour's  days,  who  testified  his  indignation  against 
it  by  entering  the  temple,  and,  having  made  a  scourge  of  small  cords, 
he  drove  them  all  out  that  sold  oxen,  and  sheep,  and  doves,  and  poured 
out  the  changers'  money,  and  overthrew  their  tables,  f 

But  what  is  all  this  to  what  we  now  behold  ? — the  mere  selling  the 
necessaries  of  life  and  the  exchanging  of  money,  which  although  re- 
stricted by  our  laws,  evils  of  a  more  aggravated  nature  are  tolerated,  or 
at  least  not  restrained  or  corrected  ?  The  Sabbath  by  many  is  turned 
into  their  chief  day  of  idleness,  recreation,  parties  of  pleasure,  sinful 
sports  and  diversion,  gaming,  feasting,  rioting  and  all  manner  of  diver- 
sion !  Shall  I  not  visit  for  these  things,  saith  the  Lord,  and  shall  not 
my  soul  be  avenged  on  such  a  people  as  this? 

Oh,  ye  rulers  and  judges  of  the  land  !  ye  masters  and  heads  of  fam- 
ilies, among  whom,  blessed  be  God,  we  have  yet  illustrious  examples 
of  those  who  honor  God's  holy  name  and  the  places  of  his  worship !  I 
know  you  will  bear  with  the  expostulations,  which  the  faithful  discharge 
of  my  duty  requires  on  this  solemn  day ! 

If  the  Jews,  when  under  the  government  of  God  himself,  and  es- 
pecially instructed  by  his  inspired  messengers  and  prophets,  came  to 
humble  themselves  under  his  judgments,  and  to  implore  his  mercy  and 
renew  their  covenant  of  obedience  with  Him ;  I  say,  if  then  they  thought 
it  their  duty  to  testify  their  sincerity  with  an  oath,  and  to  swear  with  a 
loud  voice,  and  with  shouting,  and  with  trumpets,  and  with  cornets, 
"That  whosoever  would  not  seek  the  Lord  God  of  their  fathers,  whether 
small  or  great,  man  or  woman,  should  be  put  to  death" — and  if  this 
punishment  was  inflicted  on  those  who  continued  in  idolatry,  which 
was  in  some  sort  the  acknowledgment  of  a  god,  or  gods,  although  false 

*  Neh.  xiii.  15-18.  f  Jchn  ii.  14,  15. 


398  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [  1 793 

ones,  what  punishment  can  be  due  to  those  who  not  only  discountenance 
and  refuse  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  but  openly  profane,  blaspheme, 
or  deny  His  holy  name? 

I  know,  my  brethren,  the  nature  of  persecution,  and,  I  trust,  the  nature 
also  of  that  civil  and  religious  liberty  which  our  happy  constitution  in- 
sures to  all.  But  the  abuse  of  privileges,  and  that  licentiousness,  civil 
or  religious,  which  dissolves  the  bands  of  society  and  tends  to  the  de- 
struction both  of  soul  and  body,  are  certainly  not  the  objects  of  tolera- 
tion under  any  government.  If  it  were  possible  for  men  of  the  most 
abundant  estate,  or  in  the  higher  stations  of  life,  and  who  claim  the  un- 
restrained right  of  doing  what  they  please  with  their  own;  I  say,  if  it 
were  possible  for  them  to  indulge  every  luxury,  folly,  vanity  and  vice, 
which  the  corrupt  heart  and  understanding  could  devise  (taking  their 
chance  of  another  world)  ;  I  say  again,  if  this  were  possible,  without 
poisoning  society  by  their  fatal  example  in  the  present  world,  there 
might  be  some  plea  for  their  liberty  of  doing  with  their  own  fortune, 
and  with  their  souls  and  bodies,  according  to  the  lusts  of  their  own  will. 
But  would  this  consist  with  the  dignity  of  a  man,  or  the  exercise  of  his 
rational  faculties,  even  if  he  could  believe  that  there  was  no  world  but 
the  present;  and  that,  after  the  longest  life  spent  in  the  vanities  here  on 
earth,  he  was  to  lie  down  in  the  dust,  like  the  beasts  that  perish,  and 
that  the  trump  of  God  would  never  rouse  his  sleeping  ashes  to  a  future 
judgment  ?  No !  and  I  am  well  persuaded  that  I  do  not  at  present 
address  a  man  of  this  belief.  On  the  contrary,  I  rather  trust,  that  there 
is  not  a  person  who  now  hears  me  that  does  not  believe  he  was  sent  into 
this  world  for  nobler  purposes  than  merely  to  vegetate,  to  rot,  and  to 
die.  Wherefore,  then,  let  us  all  strive  to  fill  the  sphere  assigned  us 
with  dignity  and  diligence.  If  the  supreme  Wisdom  has  called  us  to 
the  inferior  stations  of  bodily  labor,  we  are  therewith  to  be  content.  It 
is  honorable  and  subservient  to  virtue;  for  not  the  meanest  calling  but 
hath  a  blessing  promised  of  God,  and  not  the  most  exalted  but  hath  its 
cares,  its  toils  and  temptations.  Again,  if,  by  the  indulgence  of  heaven, 
we  are  released  from  the  necessity  of  bodily  labor,  yet  not  less  is  the 
sphere  of  duty,  nor  less  the  joy  attending  the  faithful  discharge  of  it. 
There  are  liberal  and  ingenuous  employments  suited  to  the  highest  parts 
and  estate — Go,  order  your  affairs  aright.  Train  up  your  children  in 
the  fear  of  God.  Be  an  example  of  righteousness  to  your  household 
and  to  society.  Husband  your  time  and  your  fortune  for  the  public 
good.  Minister  out  of  your  abundance  to  the  necessities  of  others.  Be 
hospitable;  be  kind ;  be  solicitous  for  the  advancement  of  justice  and 
virtue,  in  all  which  you  may  be  serious  without  gloom,  cheerful  without 
levity,  and  active  without  dissipation.  For  our  religion  enjoins  no  duty 
but  what  is  for  our  own  welfare,  and  denies  no  indulgence  but  what 
would  cross  us  in  our  way  heavenwards. 

True  it  is,  that  by  the  precepts  of  this  religion  men  blest  with  fortune 


1793]  KEV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  399 

and  abilities  to  serve  their  country  in  its  highest  offices  are  forbidden  to 
waste  their  prime  of  life  and  talents  in  scenes  of  dissipation  and  folly; 
they  are  exhorted  to  spurn  from  their  bosom  and  their  company  the 
profane  talker,  the  debauchee,  the  gamester,  the  sharper !  But  what  is 
all  this,  except  to  lead  persons,  born  for  worthy  actions,  to  the  noblest 
twofold  saving — a  saving  of  time  from  degrading  and  unworthy  conver- 
sation (which  might  be  better  employed  in  the  improvement  of  their 
own  faculties,  and  in  planning  for  the  public  weal ;  ;  and  a  saving  of 
expense  (which  might  redeem  a  virtuous  family  from  distress,  and  make 
the  widow's  heart  sing  for  joy). 

To  stimulate  us,  therefore,  in  such  fair  and  noble  pursuits,  let  us 
always  keep  in  view  the  great  objects  that  lie  before  us — the  career  of 
glory  to  which  we  are  called  as  a  people.  Let  us  remember  that  it  was 
not  by  idle  hands,  nor  by  reclining  in  the  lap  of  indolence,  nor  by  the 
pursuit  of  false  pleasure,  or  vanities  unsuited  to  their  condition,  that  our 
honorable  ancestors  subdued  a  wilderness,  and  left  this  goodly  heritage 
to  their  posterity  !  nor  is  it  by  means  like  these  that  we  can  transmit 
it  safe  and  nourishing  to  our  children  and  children's  children. 

It  is  always  too  soon  when  a  people,  even  arrived  at  the  meridian  of 
their  glory,  forget  those  virtues  by  which  they  were  raised  into  im- 
portance; but  for  us,  who  have  not  yet  half-way  reached  our  noon;  for 
us,  whose  sun  of  glory  has  but  just  raised  his  head  above  the  cloudy 
mountains;  for  us,  I  say,  to  relax  one  jot  of  our  industry  and  virtue,  or 
to  loiter  in  the  morning  of  our  day — what  sluggards  might  we  be 
deemed  !  Above  all,  let  us  do  away  the  evil  thing,  and  check  that 
growing  indifference  to  religion  which  is  spreading,  by  fatal  example, 
even  from  many  of  our  high  places  to  the  lowest  ranks  of  our  people, 
and  brings  us  under  the  reproach  of  Solomon,  when  he  cries  out: 
"  Wherefore  is  there  a  price  set  in  the  hand  of  a  fool  to  get  wisdom, 
seeing  he  hath  no  heart  to  it?  "*  "  If  Christ  had  not  come  and  spoken 
to  us,  we  had  not  known  sin  ;  but  now  we  have  no  cloak  for  sin."f 
'•And  better  had  it  been  for  us  never  to  have  known  the  way  of  right- 
eousness, than,  after  we  have  known  it,  to  turn  from  the  holy  command- 
ment delivered  unto  us. "J  Forbid  it,  gracious  God,  that  we  should 
ever  thus  turn  ourselves  back  from  the  truths  made  known  to  us  in 
Christ  Jesus!  Our  sins  and  ingratitude  to  thee,  our  great  Creator, 
having  been  in  many  respects  like  those  of  the  Jews,  let  us  follow  their 
best  example,  and  not  only  resolve,  but  swear,  as  they  did  in  the  days 
of  good  king  Asa,  that  we  will  henceforth  support  the  honor  of  our 
Christian  calling,  nor  suffer  among  us  those  who  deny  the  being  of  their 
Creator,  who  are  enemies  to  the  religion  of  their  country,  and  trample 
under  foot  its  holy  ordinances.  Let  us  swear  to  amend  our  lives,  to 
walk  for  the  future  in  true  holiness  before  God ;  to  venerate  and  obey 

*  Prov.  xvii.  16.  f  John  xv.  22. 


400  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  \}79o 

his  laws,  and  the  laws  of  our  country;  to  support  its  constitution,  and 
defend  our  religious  and  civil  liberties ;  to  seek  for  health  and  wealth  in 
honest  labor  and  virtue;  to  attend  to  the  right  education  of  our  chil- 
dren;  to  encourage  and  promote  those  arts  and  sciences  which  tend  to 
rear  up  good  men  and  good  citizens;  to  disseminate  human  happiness, 
and  to  distinguish  the  civilized  man  from  the  barbarous  savage,  firmly 
resolving  to  adorn  our  station,  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  whether  as 
good  magistrates,  good  fathers,  good  husbands,  good  brothers,  faithful 
friends,  and,  in  a  word,  as  honest  men  and  useful  citizens. 

Are  you  ready  to  swear  to  this?  Yea,  I  trust,  you  have  sworn  already, 
and  that  we  may  now  lift  up  our  voice  in  songs  of  gratitude  to  God  for 
our  full  deliverance  from  the  late  calamity,  and  that  our  prayers,  praises 
and  thanksgivings  will  be  as  a  sweet  incense,  holy  and  acceptable  before 
Him! 

"  Wherefore,  O  Lord  God,  who  hath  thus  wounded  us  for  our  trans- 
gressions, by  thy  late  heavy  visitation,  but  now  in  the  midst  of  judgment, 
remembering  mercy,  hast  redeemed  our  souls  from  the  jaws  of  death,  we 
offer  unto  thy  fatherly  goodness  ourselves,  our  souls  and  bodies,  which 
thou  hast  thus  delivered,  to  be  a  living  sacrifice  unto  Thee;  always 
praising  and  magnifying  Thy  mercies  in  the  midst  of  the  church,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."    Amen. 

One  of  the  finest  of  the  series  of  discourses  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking  is  one  upon  the  final  destruction  of  the  world.  Our 
author  goes  over  the  whole  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  showing  from 
the  Old  Testament,  as  from  the  New,  that  fire,  a  universal  con- 
flagration, is  to  be  the  terrible  agency  of  the  great  Jehovah  in  this 
awful  consummation  of  all  things.  We  have  said  elsewhere  that 
Dr.  Smith  was  not  learned  in  the  dogmatic  or  polemical  writings 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Indeed  he  was  not  so  in  that  class  of 
writings  of  any  church.  His  tastes,  whether  natural  or  cultivated, 
did  not  incline  to  them ;  and  his  office  of  Provost  did  not  call  upon 
him  to  make  an  enforced  acquisition  of  any  special  sort  of  lore,  in 
oppugnancy  to  his  natural  and  cultivated  tastes.  He  was  not  a 
teacher  of  theology.  But  if  he  lacked  anything  of  fulness  here, 
he  more  than  supplied  it  by  a  thorough  knowledge  of  every  part 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  the  result,  it  must  have  been,  of  early, 
long  and  continuous  reading  of  them.  The  sermon  of  which  we 
now  speak,  and  which  we  commend  to  the  reading  of  any  one 
who  possesses  Maxwell's  edition  of  Dr.  Smith's  works,  is  an  illus- 
tration as  full  as  any  other  of  Dr.  Smith's  discourses  of  what  wc 
say.     It  is  a  discourse  from  which  we  cannot  well  make  extracts. 


IJ93]  RKV-    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  4OI 

Though  having  fine  outbreaks  of  eloquence  and  descriptive  power, 
it  is  as  a  whole  that  it  is  most  remarkable,  and  remarkable  chiefly 
for  the  evidence  which  it  gives  of  its  author's  wide  and  close  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures,  of  his  capacity  to  arrange  his  Biblical  lore 
with  strength  and  effect,  to  bear  upon  his  general  proposition. 

YVe  pass,  therefore,  in  conclusion,  to  a  sermon  upon  the  joys  of 
heaven;  not  that  it  is  his  greatest  sermon,  but  because  it  is  one 
from  which  we  can  most  easily  make  extracts.  After  some  words 
of  preface  he  begins  : 

These  joys  are  now  to  be  our  ravishing  theme.  But  although  we  may- 
feel  the  consolations  to  be  derived  from  the  prospects  and  hopes  of  in- 
heriting them,  yet  how  shall  we  paint  or  describe  that  which  "Eye* 
hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man 
to  conceive,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love 
him;  but  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his  Spirit ;  for  the  Spirit 
searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of  God."  Some  description 
of  them  may,  however,  be  given  from  the  experience  of  what  gives  gen- 
uine pleasure  or  pain  to  us  in  this  world,  and  especially  from  some  pas- 
sages of  the  inspired  writers  in  sacred  Scripture  who  were  favored  with 
certain  visions  or  short  glimpses  of  the  beatific  bliss  and  glory. 

The  Apostle  f  has  said  many  things  generally  concerning  the  happi- 
ness of  heaven,  as  far  as  human  language  can  go,  as,  for  example,  he 
describes  it,  in  comparison  with  all  we  have  seen,  or  can  see  in  this 
world,  as  "  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory."  "  For 
our  light  afflictions,  which  are  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far 
more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory,  while  we  look  not  at  the 
things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are  not  seen  ;  for  the 
things  which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen 
are  eternal."  Here,  then,  is  the  great  distinction.  If  the  things  which 
men  deem  most  valuable  in  this  world  were  to  be  held  forever,  they 
would  be  content  to  enjoy  them  here  forever;  but  when  they  know  that 
they  are  perishable  and  temporal  here,  and  that  in  heaven  they  will  be 
lasting  and  eternal,  wise  men  must  soon  be  determined  in  their  choice. 

Howsoever  far  any  description  of  the  joys  of  heaven  may  fall  short 
of  the  truth,  it  is  hoped  the  souls  of  men  may  be  animated  by  the  pros- 
pect of  enjoying  them,  and  be  thereby  persuaded  to  cast  off  every  evil 
habit  that  would  render  them  unfit  for  that  holy  place,  or  stop  them  in 
their  glorious  progress  thither  ;  for  these  joys  are  too  spiritual  and  sub- 
lime— too  full  of  glory  and  goodness  to  be  ever  tasted  by  a  man  who 
carries  with  him  a  heart  wedded  to  this  world  and  polluted  with  its 
wickedness.      It  was  the  punishment  inflicted  upon  Adam's  first  trans- 


*  I  Cor.  ii.  9,  10.     Isa.  iv.  4.  f  2  Cor.  iv.  17,  18. 

26 


402  LIFE    AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  \_l79Z 

gression,  that  "  the*  very  ground  was  cursed  for  his  sake;  that  in  sor- 
row he  and  his  posterity  should  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  their  lives;  that 
it  should  bring  forth  thorns  and  thistles;  that  in  sorrow  and  in  the 
sweat  of  the  face  they  should  eat  bread  all  the  days  of  their  lives  until 
their  return  to  the  ground,  from  whence  they  were  taken  ;  for  dust  we 
are  and  unto  dust  we  must  return."  "All  things  here,"  says  Solomon, f 
"are  full  of  labor;  man  cannot  utter  it."  "Man  is  born  unto  trou- 
ble," saith  Job,!  "as  the  sparks  fly  upward."  But  in  Christ's  kingdom, 
where  sin  cannot  enter  and  divine  righteousness  must  forever  prevail, 
there  shall  be  a  glorious  and  eternal  rest  from  labor,  both  of  body  and 
soul.  There  shall  be  no  more  anxieties  nor  cares  concerning  the  future, 
nor  strifes,  nor  frauds,  nor  violence  concerning  the  present ;  but,  instead 
thereof,  there  shall  be  perpetual  tranquillity  of  enjoyment ;  attentive  to 
the  voice  of  God,  the  harmony  of  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect 
and  of  the  church  triumphant  in  heaven. 

And  now,  first,  with  respect  to  those  who  labor  and  are  heavy-laden 
in  this  world,  and  who  may  be  ready  to  sink  under  their  burden,  heaven 
is  described  as  a  rest  from  their  labor.  St.  John,  in  the  Revelation, 
saith,  "  Blessed  are  the  dead,  who  die  in  the  Lord,  for  they  rest  from 
their  labors  ;"§  "and  there  remaineth  (saith  St.  Paul)  a  rest  for  the 
people  of  God.  Let  us  therefore  strive  to  enter  into  that  rest ;  for  it  is 
a  glorious  rest,  saith  the  prophet  Isaiah." 

2.  The  happiness  of  heaven  is  also  figured  to  us  by  the  metaphor  of 
peace. 

"  Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright;  for  the  end  of  that 
man  is  peace.  "j|  "  The  righteous  are  taken  from  the  evil  to  come,  that 
they  may  enter  into  peace." 

This  peace,  to  men  who  are  born  at  enmity  with  God  and  all  good- 
ness, must  be  unspeakably  desirous.  To  have  our  consciences  quieted 
against  future  apprehensions  of  sin,  disobedience  and  punishment;  to 
have  our  souls  purified  from  all  the  fell  passions  and  inclinations  of  de- 
generate nature,  from  malice,  anger,  wrath,  clamor,  evil  speaking ;  to 
have  our  hearts  opened  to  the  divine  impressions  and  inexpressible 
sweets  of  love  and  friendship,  which  unite  the  spirits  of  the  just  and 
call  them,  with  the  accordant  voice  of  joy  and  happiness,  to  pour  forth 
before  the  throne  of  God  their  unwearied  anthems  of  adoration  and 
praise.  This  is  happiness,  indeed,  to  all  who  love  peace  and  seek  for 
relief  from  discord,  strife  and  care.   . 

3.  Again,  the  Scriptures,  addressing  the  devotees  of  worldly  riches 
and  wealth,  represent  the  joys  of  heaven  as  a  treasure — a  treasure  which 
cannot  be  consumed,  but  shall  ever  abound  and  flourish — "a  treasure 
which  neither  moth  nor  rust  can  corrupt ;  which  thieves  cannot  break 
through,  nor  steal ;   which  cannot  take  wings  and  fly  away  in  our  need, 

*  Gen.  iii.  17,  18,  19.     f  F.ccles.  i.  8.     %  Job  v.  7.       \  Rev.  xiv.  13.     |[  Ps.  xxxvii.  37. 


1793]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.   D.  4°3 

and  which  shall  remain  our  portion  and  inheritance  forever."  For,  in 
the  "  new  Jerusalem  we  shall  drink  and  be  satisfied  out  of  the  rivers 
that  flow  by  the  throne  of  God,  whose  waters  are  pure  as  crystal,  and 
shall  cat  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life,  whose  leaves  heal  the  nations."* 
Some  there  are,  likewise,  whose  whole  lives  are  devoted  to  the  pursuit 
of  what  they  call  pleasure.  Now,  to  draw  their  attention,  the  happiness 
of  heaven  is  called  "pleasures  for  evermore,"  nay,  rivers  of  pleasure, 
which  do  not  cloy  the  taste,  enfeeble  the  body,  unnerve  the  very  soul, 
and  generally  terminate  in  poverty,  shame,  disease  and  death  ;  but  the 
pleasures  of  heaven,  when  we  shall  have  put  on  immortality,  instead  of 
weakening  and  wearying  the  powers  of  the  soul,  more  and  more  inspire 
it  with  renewed  vigor,  exalting  it  to  the  strength  of  angels,  and  a  taste 
for  happiness  as  boundless  and  sublime  as  are  the  employments  in  which 
we  shall  be  engaged  and  the  objects  with  which  we  shall  be  forever  sur- 
rounded, f 

4.  There  are  others  again  who,  in  this  life,  consider  power  and  do- 
minion and  worldly  grandeur  as  the  supreme  happiness. 

To  them,  also,  the  bliss  of  heaven  is  represented  as  glory,  honor, 
power  and  dominion  eternal.  "  The  upright  shall  have  dominion  over 
the  wicked  in  the  morning  of  the  resurrection — in  that  everlasting  king- 
dom which  Christ  shall  establish,  wherein  they  only  who  are  rich  in  faith 
shall  be  the  joyous  heirs."  No  outward  enemy  shall  ever  be  able  to  rob 
or  despoil  the  righteous  of  this  honor  and  dominion,  to  which  they  shall 
be  exalted  with  the  angels  on  high,  in  subordination  to  the  King  of 
kings,  to  execute  his  high  commands  and  to  be  his  ministers  of  love 
through  the  infinite  bounds  of  his  creation.  We  shall  then  have  true 
glory  and  dominion,  eclipsing  beyond  comparison  all  the  little  pageantry 
of  what  we  call  glory  here.  For  we  shall  receive  from  Christ  himself  a 
crown  of  life  and  diadem  of  glory.  The  veil  of  our  present  weakness 
and  ignorance  shall  be  taken  away;  we  shall  behold  with  open  face,  and 
in  beatific  vision,  the  glory  of  the  living  God;  and  not  only  behold, 
but  be  changed  into  the  image  of  him,  and  advanced  from  glory  to 
glory,  through  endless  duration. 

But  we  must  proceed  a  little  farther  in  considering  the  circumstances 
of  this  heavenly  glory,  to  which  we  are  called  to  aspire.  And  it  con- 
sists not  only  in  the  perfection  to  which  we  ourselves  shall  be  advanced, 
but  in  the  place,  the  company  and  the  employ  to  which  we  shall  be 
admitted — even  unto  Mount  Zion,  the  city  of  the  living  God — the 
heavenly  Jerusalem — the  company  of  the  innumerable  hosts  of  angels  ; 
the  delightful  employment  of  rising  and  mixing  and  joining  in  their 
songs  of  praise,  in  the  instruction  to  be  derived  from  their  conversation, 
whose  faculties  are  enlarged  beyond  our  present  comprehension  ;  who 

*  Rev.  xxii.  I,  2. 

f  See  a  fine  passage  in  Cudworth's  "  Intellectual  System,"  which  led  to  this  thought. 


404  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE   OF  THE  [j793 

are  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  great  and  wonderful  things,  each  of 
them  happy  in  himself  and  rejoicing  in  the  happiness  of  each  other. 

If,  therefore,  love  and  friendship  complete;  if  rest  and  peace  undis- 
turbed ;  if  treasure  and  riches  which  cannot  decay ;  if  power  and  do- 
minion secure  from  every  foe — if  these  can  constitute  a  happy  society, 
with  the  everlasting  God,  and  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant, 
and  the  blessed  Spirit  of  grace  ruling  at  the  head  of  all,  and  supplying 
and  diffusing  new  irradiations  of  love  and  goodness,  and  perfection 
without  measure,  to  all  eternity — if  this  be  happiness.  But  I  am  lost  in 
the  contemplation  and  description  of  its  immensity — in  the  joy  to  be 
derived  from  the  vision  of  God,  the  displays  of  his  love,  the  fellowship 
of  spirits  so  highly  exalted,  the  raptures  of  converse  and  union,  with 
intelligences  so  perfect  and  enlarged,  so  full  of  all  that  is  great  and  good 
and  heavenly,  having  the  whole  works  of  God,  and  all  the  ways  and 
wonders  of  his  Providence,  which  we  now  so  little  understand,  as  the 
everlasting  objects  of  their  investigation  and  praise. 

"  The  works  of  the  Lord  are  great,  sought  out  of  all  them  that  have 
pleasure  therein.  How  manifold  are  his  works — in  wisdom  hath  he 
made  them  all."  "This  is  the  language  of  good  men,  even  in  this 
world."  But  how  small  a  portion  of  his  ways  and  works  do  we  now 
understand  !  In  the  blessed  world  above  it  will  not  be  so.  Here,  in- 
deed, we  may  examine  a  little  corner  of  this  little  speck  of  earth  ;  we 
may  strive  hardly  to  analyze  a  plant,  a  flower,  an  animated  substance, 
and  think  to  explain  the  laws  of  vegetable  and  animal  motion.  We  may 
assist  our  dim  sight  to  view  some  planets  and  stars,  which  we  call  distant 
and  that  traverse  a  small  portion  of  universal  space  ;  but  all  that  fills  tha 
immeasurable  tracts  beyond  lies  hid  from  our  keenest  search. 

Yet,  still,  if  that  little,  which  is  subjected  to  our  limited  view,  appears 
so  great,  so  beautiful,  and  wonderfully  grand  and  harmonious  to  an  in- 
quisitive mind,  with  what  rapture  shall  we  be  filled  when,  with  faculties 
more  enlarged,  we  shall  be  enabled  to  survey  all  the  works  of  God,  to 
have  for  our  instructors  and  associates  the  angels  that  have  surrounded 
his  throne  from  the  morning  of  the  creation  ;  to  teach  us  on  what  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  were  laid  ;  from  whence  are  the  springs  of  the 
sea,  and  the  treasures  of  snow  and  hail  ;  what  kindles  the  lightning's 
blaze,  and  gives  the  thunder  its  loud  and  solemn  voice ;  to  count  all  the 
stars  and  all  the  suns  and  planets  that  fill  infinite  space  ;  to  understand 
the  laws  by  which  they  are  balanced  and  suspended  and  guided  in  their 
unerring  revolutions;  and,  when  understanding  this,  to  sing  with  those 
morning  angels  of  joy,  as  they  did  at  the  first  creation,  as  we  behold 
world  after  world  filled  with  happiness;  to  take  the  harp,  in  company 
with  those  that  have  overcome,  and  join  in  the  song  of  Moses,  the  ser- 
vant of  God,  and  song  of  the  Lamb — "Great  and  marvellous  are  thy 
works,  Lord  God  Almighty  !  Just  and  tru^  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of 
kings." 


*793]  REV-    WILLIAM  SMI  TIL  D.  D.  405 

My  Christian  brethren  ! — candidates  for  eternity  ! — leave  me  not  yet. 
Stretch  your  imaginations  still  forward  to  greater  objects  and  a  more 
ample  field.  If  such  be  the  joy  in  contemplating  God's  works  as  in  a 
glass,  by  reflected  vision,  what  must  it  be  to  contemplate  and  draw  near 
to  himself,  when  we  shall  be  permitted  and  enabled  to  look  on  his  re- 
splendent countenance,  to  behold  him  as  he  is,  and  to  see  even  as  we  are 
seen?  What  will  it  be  to  rise  from  the  contemplation  of  created  and 
material  worlds  to  the  world  of  spirits,  the  history  of  their  achievements, 
and  all  the  changes,  revolutions  and  improvements  of  their  condition  ? 
But  on  this  subject  I  dare  not  venture  a  further  sentiment  that  might 
draw  us  from  the  contemplation  of  that  final  happiness,  purchased  for 
us  through  the  blood  of  our  Redeemer — the  consummation  of  which 
happiness  will  consist  in  the  pure  vision  and  enjoyment  of  God  himself, 
who,  if  he  is  so  good  "to  those  whose  hearts  are  perfect  towards  him  on 
this  earth  that  his  eyes  run  to  and  fro,  to  make  himself  strong  for  them; 
if  he  withholds  no  good  thing  from  those  that  love  him  in  this  world  ; 
if  he  openeth  his  hand  and  satisfieth  the  desire  of  every  thing  that 
liveth,"  even  where  sin  is  mixed  with  our  best  services  ;  how  great  will 
be  the  happiness  to  see  and  feel  his  goodness  when  we  are  exalted  into 
his  presence ;  to  taste  of  his  love  flowing  freely,  when  there  is  no  sin  to 
come  between  our  souls  and  his  gracious  countenance;  "when  we  are 
brought  fully  to  understand  and  taste  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of 
his  wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  also  of  his  goodness  and  long  suffering ; 
who  brought  us  out  of  the  mire  and  clay  of  our  sins ;  who  set  our  feet 
upon  the  rock  of  his  promises,  and  ordered  our  goings,  and  comforted 
us  on  our  way,  until  he  brought  us  into  his  own  holy  presence?" 

Let  me,  then,  exhort  you  to  dwell  often  in  the  meditations  of  those 
joys  which  I  have  endeavored  to  describe  ;  and  whilst  our  eyes  are  thus 
lifted  towards  heaven  and  glory,  all  that  would  fetter  and  bind  us  down 
to  the  vain  enjoyment  of  this  world  will  disappear.  Let  us  bear  our 
view  constantly  forward  to  that  time  when,  washed  and  made  white  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  we  shall  stand  before  the  throne  of  God  and 
serve  him  day  and  night  in  his  Temple;  when  our  happiness  shall  be 
complete  and  without  end;  "  when  we  shall  neither  hunger  nor  thirst 
any  more ;  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on  us  nor  any  heat ;  for  the  Lamb 
which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed  us,  and  shall  conduct  us  to 
living  fountains  of  waters,  and  God  shall  wipe  all  tears  from  our  eyes." 

In  treating  of  the  awful  mysteries,  through  which  our  text  has  led  us, 
and  especially  what  relates  to  future  events,  and  the  changes  and  revo- 
lutions in  the  destiny  of  man,  which  are  yet  to  come,  we  may  have  erred 
in  part ;  and  we  can  never  be  secure  against  error,  in  attempting  the 
explanation  of  those  mysteries  which  Providence  has  been  pleased  to 
open  to  us,  as  yet  only  in  part ;  and  which  will  never  be  fully  under- 
stood, till  unveiled  to  us  by  the  light,  to  which  we  shall  be  admitted  in 
the  world  to  come. 


4-06  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1793 

"In  the  meantime,  let  u.5  faithfully,  and  with  good  conscience,  ac- 
cording to  our  best  understanding,  strive  to  retain  the  form  of  sound 
words  and  doctrine,  concerning  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead,  a  judgment  to  come,  the  rewards  and  punishments 
of  a  future  life,  over  which  Christ's  throne  will  be  established  in  right- 
eousness, and  his  kingdom  and  dominion  be  forever." 

The  Christian  religion  has  no  fruits  more  precious  than  those  which 
sweeten  our  cup  of  affliction  in  life,  exhilarate  us  to  combat  death,  and 
assure  our  hopes  of  a  better  world.  Natural  religion,  and  all  the  other 
religions  which  have  been  professed  among  men,  could  go  but  a  short 
way  even  in  teaching  them  how  to  live ;  but  in  teaching  them  how  to 
die,  there  remained  a  dismal  and  dreadful  blank.  Before  the  Christian 
revelation,  death  was  only  a  leap  into  the  dark,  a  wrench  from  the  pre- 
cincts of  day,  at  which  the  astonished  soul  shuddered  and  recoiled. 
But  now  the  gospel  lifts  our  eye  to  immortal  scenes.  It  unlocks  eter- 
nity before  us.  It  shows  us  a  reconciled  God,  and  Jesus  the  Mediator 
seated  on  his  right  hand.  It  teaches,  that  through  his  merits,  the  just 
shall  live  forever,  passing  from  one  degree  of  glory  to  another,  and 
entering  still  more  deeply  into  the  beatific  vision  and  enjoyment  of 
God  the  Father,  as  their  faculties  are  more  and  more  enlarged  and  ex- 
panded  

And  now,  O  blessed  God  !  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  guide  and 
assist  us  in  our  preparations  for  this  celestial  bliss  ;  and  be  our  rock  and 
salvation  through  all  the  scenes  we  have  to  pass  towards  its  attainment. 
Amen  ! 


These  nine  sermons  are  among  the  best  of  Dr.  Smith's  dis- 
courses. They  added  to  his  fame  already  great.  They  exhibit 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  all  parts  of  the  Holy  Scriptures: 
and  give  evidence  that  his  mental  powers,  with  advancing  years, 
had  in  nowise  decayed,  but,  as  usually  happens,  where  those 
powers  were  originally  good  and  where  the  moral  principles  and 
conduct  had  been  sound,  only  ripened  and  grew  more  worthy  of 
admiration  and  respect. 

All  these  sermons,  it  is  an  agreeable  fact  for  me  to  mention, 
were  preached  by  Dr.  Smith  not  only  gratuitously,  but  also  with 
the  certainty  that  no  pecuniary  compensation  would  be  received. 
The  desolation  of  the  city,  even  after  the  plague  had  been  stayed, 
was,  for  a  long  time,  great,  and  involved  all  pecuniary  interests, 
including  those  of  the  churches.  Some  of  the  principal  parish- 
ioners of  the  United  Churches  had  died  during  the  pestilence. 
Universal  leniency  towards  debtors  was  necessary,  while  the   de- 


1794]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  407 

mands  upon  the  church  funds  for  the  persons  reduced  to  want  by 
the  death  of  fathers,  brothers  and  friendly  protectors,  was  greatly 
increased.  Dr.  Smith,  before  preaching  them,  had  been  informed 
that  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  the  vestry  to  offer  any  expectation 
of  a  reward :  and  he  declared  at  once  that  he  had  no  expectation 
of  any  emolument ;  and  would  cheerfully  perform  without  pecu- 
niary compensation  his  part  of  the  duties  required  at  the  two 
churches  as  should  be  agreed  upon  between  him,  the  rector  and 
Dr.  Blackwell. 


CHAPTER    LVIII. 

Dr.  Smith  Devotes  Himself  to  Internal  Improvement  through  the  Union 
Canal  Scheme — 1 1  is  Half-brother,  Thomas  Smith,  Appointed  to  the 
Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania— Death  of  John  Penn — 
Dr.  Smith  Preaches  on  the  Subject  of  Itinerant  Missions -Also  at 
Funeral  of  Col.  Joseph  Rudulph — Also  before  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Pennsylvania — General  Convention  of  1795 — Consecration  to  the 
Episcopate  of  South  Carolina  of  Dr.  Robert  Smith — Dr.  William 
Smith  Preaches  the  Consecration  Sermon,  also  that  of  Edward  Bass — 
Occupied  with  the  Proceedings  of  the  Illinois  and  Ouachita  Land 
Companies,  and  with  Introducing  Supplies  of  Drinking  Water  in  10 
Philadelphia— Presents  a  Hell  to  the  County  of  Huntingdon  for  its 

CoURT-HoU^E— BlRTH  OF  RICHARD  PENN  SMITH. 

We  have  nothing  of  a  striking  or  of  a  public  character  to  record 
for  some  time  now  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Smith,  and  are  compelled, 
therefore,  to  give  to  the  reader  such  small  or  fragmentary  matters 
as  we  can  gather  from  Dr.  Smith's  memoranda. 

Just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Yellow  Fever,  he  had  been 
devoting  his  attention  to  matters  connected  with  the  Union  Canal 
Scheme,  in  which  he  had  largely  interested  himself,  visiting  the 
several  springs  and  waters,  tributary  to  the  canal,  at  their  sources 
and  heights.  He  now  sought,  by  working  them  out  to  their  re- 
sults, to  give  effect  to  his  various  studies  and  labors  in  this  im- 
portant public  work. 

His  diary  records,  under  date  of  January  31st,  1794,  the  ap- 
pointment of  his  half-brother,  the  Hon.  Thomas  Smith,*  to  a  seat 
on  the  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  an  appointment 


*  For  an  account  of  Judge  Smith,  see  Appendix,  No.  VIII. 


408  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l795 

by  which  Dr.  Smith  seems  to  have  been  much  gratified ;  as  he 
may  well  have  been  by  the  credit  with  which  this  brother  filled, 
as  he  long  continued  to  fill,  this  responsible  and  then,  at  least 
when  the  tenure  was  for  life,  dignified  position. 

On  the  9th  of  February  he  notes  the  death  of  his  friend,  the 
Hon.  John  Penn,*  at  Pennsbury,  Bucks  county,  Pennsylvania, 
aged  sixty-seven.  Mr.  Penn  was  buried  in  Christ  Church,  Phila- 
delphia. Among  the  persons  present  at  the  funeral  was  the  Prince 
de  Talleyrand  ;  at  that  time  an  exile  in  our  country  from  France. 

On  the  6th  of  April,  in  the  year  1795,  Dr.  Smith  preached  in 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  a  sermon  from  St.  Mark,  vi.  34,  as 
an  introduction  to  a  plan  for  the  encouragement  of  itinerant 
preachers  or  missionaries  on  the  frontier  settlements  of  the  United 
States,  as  agreed  upon  at  a  convention  held  in  New  York,  in 
September,  1792. 

On  the  7th  of  April  he  preached  at  the  funeral  of  Colonel  Joseph 
Rudulph,  at  the  Swedish  church  at  Kingsessing. 

This  Joseph  Rudulph  was  the  father  of  Mrs.  Ann  Smith,  wife 
of  William  Moore  Smith,  Esq.  He  entered  the  army  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution,  took  an  active  part  in  the  South  with 
Lee,  spent  the  winter  of  1778  at  Valley  Forge,  reached  the  rank 
of  colonel,  and  resigned  his  commission  at  the  end  of  the  war. 
The  account  of  the  Rudulph  family,  in  the  note  below,  is  taken 
from  an  old  Bible  belonging  to  the  family,  f 

*This  was  not  the  Hon.  John  Penn,  who  had  taken  such  an  interest  in  Dr.  Smith 
and  the  college,  in  the  years  1762-4.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  Hon.  Richard 
Penn,  and  was  born  in  England  in  172S.  He  visited  America  in  1753  and  also  in 
1773,  and  was  the  last  proprietary  governor.  He  married  Ann  Allen,  daughter  of  the 
Hon.  William  Allen,  Chief-Justice  of  the  Province.  After  the  Revolution  he  retired 
10  his  seat  at  Pennsbury.  His  remains  were  subsequently  transferred  for  interment  to- 
England. — Ed. 

■fjohn  Rudulph,  born  August  25th,  1719;   died  December  101I1,  1768. 

Mary  Rudulph,  born  August  13th,  17 19 ;  died  March  1 6th,  1795. 

The  above  were  married  January  20th,  1740,  and  had  the  following  issue: 

Joseph  Rudulph  (afterwards  Colonel),  born  December  23d,  1741  ;   died  April  4th, 

1795- 

Jacob  Rudulph,  born  May  28th,  1744;  died  March  14th,  1795. 
Ann  Rudulph,  born  November  1 2th,  1 746. 
John  Rudulph,  born  June  3d,  1749;  died  September  3d,  1789. 
Hannah  Rudulph,  born  June  6th,  1752. 

Benjamin  Rudulph,  born  May  nth,  1762;  died  September  23d,  1762. 
Colonel  Joseph  Rudulph  married  a  Swedish  lady  by  the  name  Yocuni,  and  had  issue  : 
Joseph. 


1 795]  Kl:v-    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  4O9 

On  St.  John's  day,  the  24th  of  June,  1795,  Dr.  Smith  preached 
in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadelphia,  before  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Communication.  This  was  the  last  Masonic  Sermon  preached  by 
him.  He  seems  to  have  given  satisfaction  to  the  fraternity,  since 
the  minutes  of  the  day  record  that  after  the  discourse  it  was 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  be  requested  to  wait 
on  our  Reverend  Brother,  Dr.  Smith,  with  the  thanks  of  this  Lodge,  for 
the  discourse  by  him  delivered  on  this  day,  and  request  the  favor  of  a 
copy  of  the  same  for  publication,  and  that  one  thousand  copies  thereof 
be  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  Grand  Lodge. 

On  the  8th  of  September,  in  this  same  year  of  1795,  the  Gen- 
eral Convention  of  the  F^piscopal  Church  met  in  Christ  Church, 
Philadelphia.  Dr.  Smith  was  unanimously  chosen  President. 
Bishop  Provoost  preached  the  occasional  sermon.  At  this  con- 
vention the  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  who  had  been  elected  by  the 
church  in  South  Carolina  as  their  Bishop,  was  consecrated  on 
Sunday,  September  13th.  Dr.  Smith  (as  he  was  requested  to 
do)  preached  the  consecration  sermon.  On  the  next  day  it  was 
in  convention 

Resolved,  unanimously.  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  presented 
to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  for  his  sermon  delivered  at  the  consecration  of 
the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  Smith,  and  that  he  be  desired  to  furnish  a 
copy  of  the  same  to  be  printed. 

The  convention  continued  its  sessions  until  the  18th  of  Sep- 
tember, when  it  was 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  house  be  given  to  the  President, 
Dr.  Smith,  for  his  able  and  impartial  management  in  his  place. 

Before  the  rising  of  the  convention  a  standing  committee  was 
appointed  consisting  of  representatives  from  every  State.  Dr. 
Smith  was  appointed  to  be  its  chairman,  with  power  to  call  them 
together. 

During  the  year  1796  I  find  but  little  of  interest  in  regard  to 
the  subject  of  our  biography.  On  Sunday,  May  7th,  he  preached 
in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  upon  the  occasion  of  the  conse- 

Ann,  born  1762;  married  William  Moore  Smith,  and  died  1846. 

Elizabeth;  married  Mr.  Franks,  of  Reading,  Pa. 

Jncob, 

Lydia,  always  lived  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Smith;  died,  unmarried,  1844. 


4-IQ  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [j799 

cration  of  the  Right  Rev.  Edward  Bass,  D.D.,  as  Bishop  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire.  The  reader  will  notice  that  this 
was  the  third  consecration  of  a  Bishop  in  America,  and  Dr.  Smith 
preached  on  each  occasion. 

The  latter  part  of  the  year  found  the  hitherto  healthy  and  vig- 
orous subject  of  our  memoir  considerably  broken  in  health.  I 
discover  in  it  none  of  his  correspondence  and  little  of  his  manu- 
script. He  bemoans  the  loss  of  his  friend  Rittenhouse,  who  had 
died  the  26th  of  June;  records  the  birth  of  a  grandson  (Samuel 
Wemyss  Smith,  son  of  William  Moore  Smith),  on  the  1st  of  Sep- 
tember ;  mentions  the  fact  of  his  son  William  being  elected  Grand 
Master  of  the  Masons ;  and  that  the  roof  was  burnt  off  the  old 
academy  on  Fourth  street  below  Arch,  on  the  night  of  Decem- 
ber 30th. 

I  here,  to  some  extent,  lose  sight  of  him  for  three  years,  during 
which  time  he  remained  chiefly  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill ;  en- 
gaged, I  presume,  in  putting  into  order  the  title  papers  and  maps 
of  his  extensive  landed  estates  in  different  parts  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  in  making  clear  and  intelligible  accounts  of  what  was 
due  him  on  the  sales  of  them.  During  the  year  1790  he  gave  to 
the  public  a  work  in  8vo.,  entitled, 

"An  account  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Illinois  and  Ouabache  Land 
Companies,  in  pursuance  of  their  purchases  made  of  the  Independent 
Natives,  July  5th,  1773,  and  October  18th,  1775,  with  map  of  New 
Jersey." 

This  volume  was  printed  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  also  much 
occupied  with  the  subject  of  introducing  water  of  the  Schuylkill 
river  into  Philadelphia,  and  in  January,  1799,  by  request  of  the 
Council  of  Philadelphia,  he  prepared  and  published  a  pamphlet  on 
this  subject,  entitled, 

"Remarks  on  a  Second  Publication  of  B.  Henry  Latrobe,  Engineer." 
This  was  for  distribution  among  the  members  of  the  Legislature. 

In  the  same  month  of  January,  1799,  he  presented  a  bell  to  the 
borough  of  Huntingdon,  Pennsylvania,  for  the  court-house.  It 
was  one  of  some  size,  weighing  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  pounds, 
and  had  inscribed  upon  it : 

Cast  by  Samuel  Parker,  Philadelphia,  1798.  William  Smith,  D.D., 
to  the  borough  of  Huntingdon,  Juniata. 


iSoo]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  4' I 

After  being  used  on  the  court-house  until  May,  1848,  it  was 
placed  upon  the  public  school-house,  and  remained  in  use  there 
until  December  12th,  1 861,  on  the  morning  of  which  day,  a  very 
cold  and  frosty  one,  on  ringing  it  for  school,  it  was  suddenly 
cracked. 

I  now  find  in  Dr.  Smith's  diary  the  following  entry : 

March  13th,  1799.  The  wife  of  my  son,  William  Moore  Smith',  gave 
birth  to  a  son,  whom  they  call  Richard  Pom,  after  his  honor,  Richard 
Penn,  Esq. 

Of  this  grandson  of  Dr.  Smith,  so  long  a  well-known  citizen  of 
Philadelphia,  my  readers  will,  I  trust,  excuse  a  son's  affection,  if  I 
give,  in  the  conclusion  of  this  volume,  some  little  sketch  of  his 
life  and  literary  labors.* 

On  June  nth,  1799,  the  General  Convention  met  again  in 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Smith  was  again  elected  Presi- 
dent. At  this  convention,  however,  he  was  too  feeble  to  take  an 
active  part.  He  was  placed,  nevertheless,  upon  a  Committee  to 
draft  a  Course  of  Study,  for  candidates  for  holy  orders.  I  find  no 
account  of  the  committee  having  made  a  report.  It  is  probable — 
indeed  it  would  seem  almost  certain — that  the  Course  proposed 
by  Bishop  White  at  a  subsequent  convention,  that  of  1804,  had 
from  his  old  friend  and  preceptor  at  least  a  general  approval. 


CHAPTER    LIX. 

Dr.  Smith  III  at  Lancaster— Letter  to  his  son,  William  Moore  Smith — 
Death  of  Governor  Mifflin — Dr.  Smith  preaches  a  Guarded  Funeral 
Sermon  upon  him — Gilbert  Stuart  makes  a  Portrait  of  Dr.  Smith — 
Several  copies  and  engravings  made  of  it — Bust  made  by  Storke — Gen- 
eral Convention  of  1801 — Dr.  Smith  present  at  it,  but  too  feeble  to 
take  much  part  in  it — builds  and  inscribes  a  mausoleum — death  of  his 
Sister  and  his  man  Primus — His  last  Will. 

The  early  part  of  this  year  (1800)  found  Dr.  Smith  ill  at  the  house 
of  his  son,  Charles,  in  the  city  of  Lancaster.  He  makes  mention  of 
this  sickness  in  his  will.     We  have  a  letter  to  one  of  his  sons  at 


*See  Appendix  No.  IX. 


412  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [  I SOC 

Philadelphia,  written  at  this  time,  and  curiously  indicative  of  his 
sense  of  local  order  and  of  the  care  which  he  gave  his  papers.  I 
infer  from  the  letter  that  the  Doctor  contemplated  having  some 
alterations  made  in  his  study,  or  to  have  it  papered  or  painted, 
and  was  solicitous  about  keeping  his  "great  chest"  and  "small 
red  trunk"  together. 

Dr.  Smith  to  William  Moore  Smith.* 

Lancaster,  January  21st,  1800. 
My  Dear  Son:  I  wish  you  to  ride  out  now  and  then  to  Schuylkill,  to 
see  how  my  people  there  are  going  on ;  and  the  first  time  you  go  out  get 
Bell  (the  Doctor's  sister)  to  open  rny  room,  and  in  the  open  closet  by 
the  window  you  will  see  a  small  red  trunk  containing  MSS.,  sermons 
and  other  papers;  also  some  books  on  the  shelves.  I  wish  them  all  to 
be  lifted  out  and  laid  on  or  by  the  great  chest  or  trunk  of  papers,  lest 
they  should  be  forgot.  If  any  occasion  should  be  (which  I  hope  will 
not  be)  to  remove  the  large  chest — or  without  your  moving  the  little 
red  trunk  and  books  out  of  the  closet — they  may  stand,  and  it  may  be 
sufficient  if  you  put  Bell  in  mind  to  move  them  if  necessary  to  move 
anything  else.  If  you  have  any  windows  opened  in  the  room,  you  will 
see  that  they  are  again  shut  as  I  left  them.  Write  to  me,  directing  to 
Chambersburg,  where  I  shall  remain  with  the  judges  till  the  mail 
arrives.  Your  affectionate  father, 

William  Smith. 

While  at  Lancaster,  Thomas  Mifflin,  long  the  Governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania, died  on  the  25th  of  January.  Resolutions  were  passed 
by  the  Legislature  expressive  of  his  Excellency's  merits  and  his 
services  as  a  soldier  and  a  statesman,  and  providing  for  his  inter- 
ment at  the  public  expense  and  for  the  erection  of  a  monument  to 
his  memory.  Dr.  Smith  was  requested  by  the  new  Governor,  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  to  deliver  a  commemorative 
sermon.  This  sermon  was  never  published,  and  there  was  little 
in  it  not  of  a  general  nature.  While  Dr.  Smith,  of  course,  could 
not  decline  a  public  request  to  preach  at  least  a  "  Regulation " 
sermon  on  the  death  of  a  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  especially 
of  one  long  his  near  neighbor  and  personal  acquaintance,  and 
while  he  would  have  been  very  ready  to  admit  the  considerable 
place  that  Governor  Mifflin  will  always  hold  among  the  governors 
of  Pennsylvania — in  early  days  the  representatives  of  the  Demo- 

*  In  the  fine  collection  of  autographs  of  F.  J.  Dreer,  Esq. 


l8oo]  A'/;/',    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.   Z>.  413 

cratic  party,  a  party  to  which  Dr.  Smith  did  not  belong — he  was 
too  well  aware  of  the  undeniably  very  large  part  that  General 
Mifflin  had  in  the  "Conway  cabal,"  of  his  hostility  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and  of  that  commander's  opinion  of  him*  to  go 
into  much  eulogy  either  of  Governor  Mifflin's  integrity  or  his 
valor.  Dr.  Smith  asks  many  questions,  but  answers  none;  he 
states  many  general  truths,  but  leaves  the  hearer  to  apply  them  if 
he  pleases.  He  is  indeed  amusingly  cautious,  saying  very  little 
more  about  the  subject  of  his  discourse  than  this: 

If  we  were  called  to  power,  rule  and  government  over  our  fellow- 
men,  then  shall  it  be  known  whether  we  bartered  our  favors  away  for 
vile  gain  !  Whether  we  were  open  to  the  allurements  of  vi-ce,  the  blan- 
dishments of  flattery,  and  the  snares  or  seductions  of  party  !  Or  whether 
we  made  use  of  our  influence  and  authority  to  support  justice,  to  pro- 
tect innocence,  to  encourage  virtue  and  to  reward  merit. 

I  add  no  more.  To  this  test  of  the  use  of  power  and  exercise  of  gov- 
ernment, I  may  leave  the  character  of  the  deceased.  The  honor  done 
to  his  name  by  this  public  funeral,  and  the  vote  of  a  monument  by  the 
Legislature,  to  perpetuate  his  memory,  will  rescue  his  public  virtue  from 
public  censure.  Private  frailties  he  had,  as  a  man;  but  if  they  were  in- 
jurious, it  was  only  to  himself — never  to  his  friends  or  country ! 

Haste  we,  then,  to  commit  his  mortal  part,  with  its  mortal  frailties, 
to  its  destined  place — that  yawning  grave,  where  they  will  at  last  find 
rest — a  safe  asylum  from  worldly  distress,  the  shafts  of  malice,  and  the 
persecutions  of  party. 

"  His  worth  we  seek  no  farther  to  disclose, 

Nor  draw  his  frailties  from  that  dread  abode — 
Where  they  alike,  in  trembling  hope,  repose — 
The  bosom  of  his  Father  and  his  God." — Gray. 

After  the  funeral  Dr.  Smith  was  removed  to  the  Falls  of  Schuyl- 
kill, where  he  remained,  more  or  less  incommoded  by  indisposi- 
tion, during  the  year.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Gilbert  Stuart 
painted  his  celebrated  picture  of  him.  This  picture  is  now  (1880) 
in  the  possession  of  Dr.  John  Hill  Brinton,  of  Philadelphia.  It 
has  been  copied  a  number  of  times  on  canvas.  In  1820  two 
copies  were  made  in  Lancaster,  by  an  artist  named  Icholtz,  for 
Richard  Smith,  Esq.,  of  Huntingdon.  A  copy  was  also  made  by 
order  of  Dr.  Perigrine  Wroth,  for  Washington  College,  Chester- 


*  See  Sparks's  Writings  of  Washington,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  483-518;   37J. 


414  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [l800 

town,  Md.  In  1857  it  was  copied  by  Thomas  Sully,  for  St.  Peter's 
Church,  Philadelphia,  and  in  1872  by  E.  D.  Marchand,  by  order 
of  John  Blodget  Britton,  Esq.,  for  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.* 
I  have  been  informed  that  there  is  also  a  copy  at  Stoke,  England, 
the  residence  of  the  Penn  family.  It  has  been  engraved  both  on 
metal  and  on  wood,  etc.  The  best  engraving  on  metal  is  that 
made  by  the  great  engraver,  David  Edwin,  in  1803,  for  Maxwell's 
edition  of  Dr.  Smith's  works  ;f  but  a  creditable  one  was  made 
lately  by  a  young  artist,  George  Herbert  White,  of  Philadelphia. 
I  have  also  had  a  plaster  bust  modelled  by  a  young  Florentine 
artist  of  rising  fame  named  Carl  Stork,  which  I  have  presented  to 
the  University. 

We  have  thus  far  seen  Dr.  Smith  both  an  active  and  a  principal 
person  in  nearly  all  our  early  church  conventions.  But  this  ac- 
tivity and  this  distinction  was  now  soon  to  cease.    The  convention 

*The  following  resolutions  were  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  March  5,  1872,  at  a  meeting  before  which  was  laid  Mr.  Britton's  note 
communicating  his  wish  to  offer  the  copy  to  the  University: 

Resolved,  That  the  gift  of  a  portrait  of  Dr.  William  Smith,  the  first  Provost  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia — since  the  University  of  Pennsylvania — which  J.  Blodget 
Britton,  Esq.,  proposes  to  make  to  the  institution,  by  his  letter  of  the  10th  ultimo,  be 
and  the  same  is  hereby  gratefully  accepted  by  the  trustees. 

Resolved,  That  the  eminent  services  rendered  by  Dr.  Smith,  in  the  founding  of  the 
institution,  his  extraordinary  labors  and  success  in  procuring  for  it  what  in  those  early 
days  was  a  magnificent  endowment,  and  the  deep,  affectionate,  and  abiding  interest 
which  he  continually  manifested  for  its  welfare  and  success,  are  deeply  engraven  in 
the  history  of  the  University  and  in  the  heart  of  all  who  have  been  honored  with  ad- 
ministration of  its  affairs. 

Resolved,  That  the  Provost  of  the  University  be  requested  to  receive  the  portrait 
of  Dr.  Smith,  on  behalf  of  the  trustees,  whenever  it  shall  be  ready  for  delivery,  and 
place  the  same  in  the  chapel  of  the  University. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  the  foregoing  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  Mr.  Britton  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Board,  and  that  they  also  be  published. 

Cadwalader  Biddle,  Secretary. 

f  David  Edwin,  an  Englishman,  born  at  Bath,  in  December,  1776,  was  the  son  of 
John  Edwin,  a  comedian.  Young  Edwin  was  apprenticed  in  his  boyhood  to  Jossi,  a 
Dutch  engraver,  who  at  this  time  was  working  in  England,  and  who  is  said  to  have 
been  a  very  complete  artist  and  draughtsman.  Jossi  returned  to  Holland  in  1796,  and 
took  David  Edwin  with  him.  The  latter  was  a  short  time  at  Amsterdam,  but  left  the 
country  in  the  year  1797  in  a  ship  bound  to  Philadelphia,  via  Havre,  which  took  five 
months  on  the  passage;  and  this  conveyance  Edwin  obtained  upon  the  vessel  by  work- 
ing before  the  mast.  Upon  his  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  in  December,  1797,  he  sought 
employment,  and  the  first  work  which  he  obtained  was  the  engraving  of  music — work 
given  him  by  T.  B.  Freeman.  Edwin  became  famous  in  after  time  as  an  engraver 
of  portraits,  and  he  obtained  the  best  work.  He  engraved  many  of  Stuart's  pictures, 
and  many  portraits  of  public  men.     He  died  in  Philadelphia,  Feb.  22,  1841,  aged  63. 


iSOl]  V.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.    D.  415 

of  1 801  met  in  St.  Michael's  Church,  Trenton,  on  Tuesday,  Sep- 
tember 8th.  Dr.  Smith  was  at  first  disinclined  to  go  to  it;  but 
Dr.  Blackwell,  his  kind  friend  of  ancient  date,  offering  to  take  him 
in  his  own  carriage,  he  accompanied  this  excellent  gentleman. 
He  was,  however,  in  a  feeble  condition,  and  declined  to  act  as 
president.  The  Rev.  Abraham  Beach,  D.  D.,  of  New  Brunswick, 
in  New  Jersey,  was  accordingly  elected  in  his  stead.  While  oh- 
serving  them  intelligently,  Dr.  Smith  took  but  little  active  part  in 
the  proceedings,  and  his  last  act,  in  this  the  last  convention  in 
which  he  ever  assisted,  was  to  propose  a  canon  making  an  addition 
to  the  first  canon  of  1795,  on  the  subject  of  Episcopal  Visitations. 
The  addition  was  read  and  adopted,  and  sent  to  the  House  of 
Bishops,  who  immediately  concurred  in  it.  He  was  brought  back 
to  Philadelphia  by  Dr.  Blackwell,  assisted  by  a  Maryland  friend, 
the  Rev.  John  Coleman,*  at  that  time  rector  of  St.  Thomas 
Church,  Baltimore. 

During  the  latter  part  of  this  year  Dr.  Smith  prepared  a  mauso- 
leum on  his  estate,  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  with  the  following 
inscription  over  the  door: 

Anno  Christi  1801   Gulielmus  Smith,  S.  T.  P. 

Tunc  astat.  75. 

Hoc  Parvulum  Mausoleum  Ixstituit 

M.  S. 

Sui  et  conjugis  cars  Rebeccae. 

Sobolisque  Eorum. 

Ouotquot  hie  jaccnt,  Quotquot  alibi 

Cognoscere  Velles 

Intra  disccs  Lector. 

Among  Dr.  Smith's  papers  I  find  the  following  inscription  in 
his  handwriting  directed  to  Mr.  Latrobe,  the  architect,  which  I 
suppose  he  had  intended  to  use: 

"John  Coleman,  a  native  of  Virginia — ordained  by  Bishop  White  in  17S7.  He 
became  rector  of  St.  John's,  Baltimore  and  Harford  counties;  in  1799  of  St.  Thomas, 
Baltimore  county;  in  1806  of  St.  James,  Baltimore  county,  and  of  Christ  Church,  Har- 
ford, also,  which  he  erected.  He  was  convention  preacher  in  1795,  member  of  the 
Standing  Committee  seventeen  times,  and  five  times  delegate  to  the  General  Conven- 
tion. He  published  the  autobiography  and  letters  of  Devereaux  Jarratt.  Died  1S16, 
aged  53. 


4l6  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l8oi 

M.  S. 

Gulielmi  Smith,  S.  T.  P. 

Conjugis  quoque  ejus  dilectae  Rebeccae, 

Scbolisque  eorum  quotquot  hie  inhumabuntur 

Nomina  intus  discas. 

Hanc  domum  Sept.,  1800. 

Ego  G.  S.  tunc  vivus  aetat.  74  mihi  et  meis  paravi 

In  qua  mortui,  spe  Resurrectionis  in  Christo  quiescamus 

Ossibus  nostris  quisquis  es  Viator 

Obsecro. 

The  new  structure  was  not  long  without  an  occupant.  On  the 
1st  of  February,  1801,  Isabella  Smith,  the  much-loved  sister  of  the 
Doctor,  died  at  the  Falls,  and  on  the  following  evening  her  body 
was  deposited  in  the  mausoleum. 

The  Falls  soon  had  another  visitation  from  "the  grisly  mon- 
arch." On  the  10th  of  May,  1801,  Primus,  the  faithful  body-ser- 
vant of  Dr.  Smith,  died.  He  was  buried  outside  the  mausoleum. 
Dr.  Smith  had  a  great  regard  for  Primus,  whom  he  had  bought  as 
a  child  in  Maryland,  in  1783,  and  who  had  been  constantly  by  his 
side  for  nearly  twenty  years.  When  he  died,  the  Doctor  remarked 
that  he  had  been  so  long  Primus  in  this  world  that  he  was  not 
likely  to  be  Sccundus,  he  thought,  in  the  world  to  come. 

These  various  deaths,  which  in  different  ways  were  so  near  to 
him,  were  calculated  to  bring  forcibly  before  the  venerable  subject 
of  our  biography  a  likelihood  that  the  great  change  would  soon 
overtake  himself.  To  one  so  deeply  reflective,  however,  no  such 
warnings  were  necessary.  His  mind  was  always  and  fully  awake 
to  the  necessity  both  of  spiritual  and  temporal  preparation  for  the 
"inevitable  hour."  He  now  made  his  will,  a  document  which  is 
so  interesting,  and  which  reveals  so  rrjuch  of  his  character,  that  I 
venture  to  transcribe  it  entire: 

The  last  will  and  testament  of  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  of  the  North- 
ern Liberties  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  Commonwealth  of 
Pennsylvania. 

In  the  name  of  God. — Amen.  I,  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  formerly 
and  for  many  years  Provost  of  the  College  Academy  and  charitable 
schools  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  now  resident  on  my  farm  at  the 
Falls  of  Schuylkill,  in  the  Northern  Liberties  of  said  city,  and  Com- 
monwealth of  Pennsylvania,  being  devoutly  thankful  to  Almighty  God, 


1802]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  \\J 

my  great  and  gracious  Creator,  that  amidst  the  many  visitations  of 
sickness  and  mortality  which  I  have  been  called  to  witness  in  the  place 
of  my  late  residence,  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  bereavements  in 
my  own  family  during  those  visitations,  He  hath  been  pleased  to  spare 
me  to  a  very  advanced  age,  and  to  raise  me  up  and  restore  me  so  far 
from  a  late  dangerous  sickness,  in  the  borough  of  Lancaster,  during  the 
months  of  January  and  February,  1S00,  and  also  a  late  severe  sickness 
in  February,  1802,  that  I  am  now  able  (in  respect  to  strength  of  body 
and  soundness  of  mind,  the  last  of  which  he  hath  at  all  times  graciously 
preserved  to  me  both  in  sickness  and  in  health  during  the  whole  period 
of  my  life)  to  set  my  household  in  order  and  to  stand  prepared  through 
his  grace  for  my  grea';  change.  Therefore,  I  do  make,  publish  and  de- 
clare this  as  my  last  will  and  testament. 

In  the  first  place,  I  recommend  and  bequeath  my  soul  to  Almighty 
God,  who  gave  it,  trusting  in  him  for  the  forgiveness  of  my  sins  and 
salvation,  through  the  merits  and  intercession  of  his  blessed  Son,  Jesus 
Christ,  grounded  on  a  firm  belief  of  the  truths  of  Divine  Revelation  as 
contained  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  (and  as  I 
have  endeavored  to  teach  and  preach  them  through  the  grace  given  me) 
with  all  zeal  and  fidelity,  during  a  long  period  of  near  fifty  years ;  striv- 
ing for  the  propagation  of  heavenly  knowledge  and  wisdom  amongst  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  especially  amongst  those  who  yet  sit  in 
darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death  through  this  American  continent  to 
its  remotest  western  bounds. 

As  to  my  body,  whensoever  God  shall  be  pleased  to  call  it  from  the 
light  of  this  world,  and  to  close  my  eyes  in  death,  I  will  it  to  a  plain 
Christian  interment  in  the  place  and  in  the  manner  hereinafter 
directed. 

Concerning  my  worldly  estate  and  goods  with  which  it  hath  pleased 
God  to  bless  my  lawful,  and  I  trust  honest,  industry  (being  conscious 
of  no  wrong  done  or  intended  to  any  man  in  the  acquisition  of  the 
same),  I  will  and  dispose  of  it  as  follows — that  is  to  say: 

First.  My  funeral  expenses  being  first  paid,  I  will  and  ordain  that  my 
just  debts  (which  are  at  present  but  few  and  small,  the  debt  to  my  dear 
brother  Thomas  excepted)  be  n#ext,  and  as  soon  as  possible  fully  and 
fairly  paid  and  discharged  out  of  my  personal  estate,  so  far  as  it  will 
reach,  and  then,  if  need  be,  out  of  any  part  of  my  real  estate,  which  I 
empower  them  to  sell  and  convey  in  fee  for  this  purpose.  Respecting 
which,  having  always  considered  it  to  be  the  duty  of  a  parent,  after  a 
good  and  virtuous  education  of  his  children,  according  to  his  station  in 
life,  as  far  as  his  abilities  and  a  due  measure  of  prudence  will  allow ;  and 
having  upon  those  principles  given  or  conveyed  to  my  children  respec- 
tively, with  an  equal  and  impartial  hand,  a  considerable  part  of  my 
property,  as  they  came  of  age  (or  as  their  settlement  and  advancement 
in  life  seemed  to  require),  and  having  confirmed  the  same  by  separate 
27 


41 8  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [_l802 

deeds  or  grants  to  each  of  them,  with  such  limitations  and  reversions, 
etc.,  respecting  some  parts  of  my  estate  as  I  thought  proper,  this  my 
present  last  will  and  testament  needs  therefore  only  to  regard  my 
residuary  estate  as  it  may  be  at  the  time  of  my  death ;  which  I  will  and 
ordain  to  be  divided  into  five  parts  or  shares  as  nearly  of  equal  value 
(quantity  and  quality  considered)  as  can  be  estimated. 

One  share  or  fifth  part  of  the  same  to  my  son  William.  One  other 
share  or  fifth  among  the  children  or  legal  representatives  of  my  dear 
deceased  daughter  Wiiliamina,  share  and  share  alike.  One  other  share 
or  fifth  part  to  my  son  Charles  in  fee.  One  other  share  or  fifth  part  to 
my  son  Richard  in  fee.  And  the  remaining  fifth  part  or  share  to  the 
Hon.  Thomas  Smith,  Esq.,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  the  Right  Rev. 
Bishop  White,  of  the  said  city,  and  the  Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  Esq.,  of 
the  borough  of  Lancaster,  and  to  the  survivors  and  survivor  and  the 
heirs  of  such  survivor,  in  trust  for  the  use  of  my  daughter  Rebecca  and 
her  children,  or  legal  representatives,  at  the  time  of  her  decease,  as  set 
forth  more  at  large  in  my  Deed  of  Trust  to  them. 

And  if  such  division  cannot  be  made  amicably  by  the  devisees  afore- 
said, the  same  shall  be  made  according  to  law  on  the  application  of  any 
one  or  more  of  them. 

It  having  now  pleased  God  to  enable  me  to  bring  this  my  last  will 
towards  a  conclusion,  although  hastily,  yet  with  a  pure  and  sincere  in- 
tention to  do  equal  justice  to  all  my  children  and  family,  I  recommend 
them  to  the  blessing  of  the  Almighty,  charging  them  that,  from  regard 
to  my  memory,  the  education  I  have  bestowed  on  them,  my  anxiety  to 
provide  for  and  assist  them  in  gaining  comfortable  settlements  in  life, 
they  will  always  preserve  a  mutual  affection  one  to  another;  and  as  I 
have  endeavored  to  express  my  intention  clearly  in  this  will,  with  equal 
affection  to  all  of  them,  I  trust  the  said  intention  will  be  their  guide 
and  Pole  star  in  the  interpretation  of  the  same,  and  that  no  want  of 
legal  form  in  the  meaning  or  matter  will  ever  be  made  a  cause  by  any 
of  them  to  contravene  that  intention. 

Item.  I  do  hereby  direct  that  my  funeral  may  be  plain  and  decent, 
and  that  my  body,  wheresoever  my  death  may  happen,  may  be  conveyed 
(if  it  can  be  done  with  any  possible  .safety  and  convenience)  and  de- 
posited in  the  middle  grave  prepared  by  me  in  the  small  mausoleum  and 
cenotaph,  which  I  have  erected  in  my  garden,  near  my  present  dwelling 
house,  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  and  that  the  ashes  of  my  dear  wife  and 
my  two  infant  children,  Phineas  and  Elizabeth  (buried  by  her  side  in 
Christ  Church  burying-ground),  be  taken  up  and  enclosed  in  an  urn 
and  deposited  in  the  same  grave  with  me  during  the  next  winter,  if  I 
should  not  live  to  execute  that  mournful  but  sacred  duty  myself,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  promise  which  my  good  friend  Bishop  White  hath  given 
me  of  obtaining  leave  to  open  the  ground  for  that  purpose  when  I  may 
think  it  convenient. 


l802]  REl\    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  4'9 

I  do  further  direct  that  the  figure  of  the  angel  coming  down  from 
heaven,  having  in  one  hand  a  little  book,  open,  and  setting  his  right 
foot  on  the  sea  and  his  left  foot  on  the  earth,  with  the  other  hand  lifted 
up  to  heaven,  in  the  act  of  swearing  or  proclaiming,  etc.  (as  in  Rev. 
x.),  proposed  for  the  top  of  the  mausoleum,  be  not  forgot,  and  that 
Mr.  Rush,  the  carver,  be  expedited  to  finish  and  put  up  the  same  ac- 
cording to  his  promise;  that  the  words  "  Time  shall  be  no  more  "  be 
cut  on  the  small  marble,  above  the  large  marble  containing  the  inscrip- 
tion over  the  door  on  the  outside;  that  the  letters  of  the  said  inscription 
be  painted  black,  or  some  other  color  to  make  them  easily  legible  from 
the  ground. 

Item.  I  will  and  devise  that  a  decent  tombstone  may  be  soon  erected 
over  the  grave  of  my  dear  deceased  son,  Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  ex- 
pressive of  that  parental  affection  which  he  enjoyed  and  deserved  during 
his  life;  and  the  singular  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  as  a  physician 
and  the  first  magistrate  elected  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  of 
Huntingdon  after  its  erection,  conducting  himself  with  such  benevo- 
lence, assiduities,  abilities  and  disinterestedness  in  both  characters  that 
his  memory  continues  and  is  likely  to  continue  long  precious  to  the 
citizens  of  that  county,  and  especially  among  the  poor,  whose  civil 
differences  he  generally  reconciled  without  the  rigor  of  legal  process, 
and  to  whose  bodily  ails  and  family  affliction  he  administered  comfort 
and  relief  to  the  last  moment  of  his  short  life,  without  charging,  and 
seldom  ever  accepting,  a  fee  or  emolument  of  office.  Let  all  this  be 
expressed  in  simple  and  modest  terms,  for  monuments  of  the  dead  are 
too  often  like  life  itself — a  short  and  transient  vanity,  unless  they  are 
sanctioned  by  the  public  voice. 

Item.  I  here  ordain  and  direct  that  fourteen  mourning  rings,  of  the 
value  of  twenty  dollars  each,  be  prepared  and  given  by  my  executors; 
that  is,  one  ring  as  a  token  of  my  love  to  each  of  the  following  persons: 
my  beloved  relations  or  friends;  that  is  to  say,  my  dear  sisters-in-law, 
Mrs.  Williamina  Bond,  Mrs.  Ann  Ridgely  and  Mrs.  Letitia  Smith; 
Mrs.  Ennals,  of  Shoal  Creek,  Dorset  county,  Maryland;  my  daughter- 
in-law,  Mrs.  Mary  Smith,  of  Lancaster;  my  daughter  Rebecca;  my 
grand-daughter,  Sarah  Yerbury  Goldsborough ;  my  three  sons,  William 
Moore  Smith,  Charles  Smith  and  Richard  Smith,  viz.,  one  ring  each; 
my  dear  brother,  the  Hon.  Thomas  Smith,  Esq.  ;  my  dear  friends,  the 
Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  Esq.,  the  Right  Rev.  William  White,  Bishop  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Benjamin 
R.  Morgan,  Esq.,  counsellor  at  law  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  one  ring 
each.  Lastly,  I  do  hereby  constitute  and  appoint  my  dear  brother,  the 
Hon.  Thomas  Smith,  Esq.,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  my  worthy 
friends,  the  Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  Esq.,  of  the  borough  of  Lancaster,  the 
Right  Rev.  William  White,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Benjamin  R.  Morgan,  Esq.,  counsel- 


420  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l8o2 

lor  at  law,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  survivors  and  survivor 
of  them  to  be  executors  of  this  my  last  will  and  testament  written  in 
eight  pages. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  four- 
teenth day  of  July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  two — hereby  revoking  all  former  wills,  codicils,  etc. 

William  Smith,  D.  D. 

Signed,  declared  and  published  as  and  for  the  last  will  and  testament 
of  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  in  the  presence  of  us  who  have  subscribed  our 
names  as  witnesses  in  the  testator's  presence  and  at  his  request. 

James  Riddle, 
Eliza  Smith, 
Wm.  Rudolph  Smith. 

Codicil  to  the  last  will  and  testament  of  William  Smith,  D.  D. : 
Whereas,  Since  the  execution  of  my  said  last  will  and  testament, 
bearing  date  July  the  fourteenth,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  two, 
I  have  thought  it  proper,  at  the  request  of  my  executors  therein  named, 
to  relieve  them  from  the  trouble  of  executorship;  wherefore  I  do  hereby 
revoke  all  that  part  of  my  said  last  will  which  constitutes  and  appoints 
my  dear  brother,  the  Hon.  Thomas  Smith,  Esq.,  of  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  my  worthy  friends,  the  Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  Esq.,  of  the 
borough  of  Lancaster,  and  the  Right  Rev.  William  White,  Bishop  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  sur- 
vivors or  survivor  of  them,  to  be  executors  of  my  said  last  will  and 
testament.  And  in  their  room  and  stead  I  do  hereby  constitute  and 
appoint  my  dear  sons,  William  Moore  Smith,  Esq.,  Charles  Smith,  Esq., 
and  Richard  Smith,  Esq.,  together  with  Benjamin  R.  Morgan,  Esq., 
counsellor  at  law,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  survivors  or  sur- 
vivor of  them,  to  be  executors  of  my  last  will  and  testament,  before 
written  in  eight  pages. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  third 
day  of  February,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  three,  hereby  revoking  all  former  codicils,  etc. 


William  Smith,  D.  D. 


{".} 


Signed,  declared  and  published  as  and  for  the  codicil  to  the  last  will 
and  testament  of  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  in  the  presence  of  us  who  have 
subscribed  our  names  as  witnesses  in  the  testator's  presence  and  at  his 
request.  Robert  Kennedy, 

Martin  Whittem, 
Wm.  Rudolph  Smith. 

This  will  is  entered  in  the  usual  form  in  the  Register's  office  in 
Philadelphia,  in  Will  Book  No.  I.,  page  109. 


I80O]  £EV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  I).  42* 


CHAPTER   LX. 

Dr.  Smith  begins  to  execute  a  purpose  formed  in  17S9  and  ArrRovF.n  by  the 
General  Convention  of  thai  year,  kut  by  a  variety  ok  causes  delayed, 
to  publish,  in  a  collected  form,  his  works— only  l\vo  volumes  puulished 
out  of  five,  which  he  contemplated  publishing— these  two  printed  by 
Maxwell,  a  publisher  of  Philadelphia  during  Dr.  Smith's  lifetime,  but 
not  ruullshed  until  after  his  death. 

So  far  back  as  the  year  1789,  on  his  return  from  Maryland,  Dr. 
Smith  announced  his  intention  to  publish,  in  a  collection,  his 
sermons  upon  the  most  important  branches  of  practical  Chris- 
tianity. This  was  made  in  the  form  of  a  communication  to  the 
General  Convention  of  the  church  in  that  year,  which  we  now  give 

in  this  place. 

Philadelphia,  August  5,  1789. 

To  the  Right  Reverend  and  Reverend  the  Clergy,  and  the  Worthy  and 
Honorable  Lay  Members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in 
the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  now  assembled  in  Gen- 
eral Convention. 

My  Worthy  Friends  and  Brethren  : 

The  sermons  and  discourses,  whereof  the  texts  and  titles  follow,  are 
the  result  of  the  author's  labors  as  a  preacher  of  the  blessed  Gospel  for 
near  forty  years  past.  Sundry  of  them,  which  were  composed  and  de- 
livered on  special  public  occasions,  have  been  already  printed,  and  have 
passed  through  several  editions,  in  Europe  as  well  as  America;  but  the 
main  body  of  them  was  composed  and  delivered  at  different  times,  in 
the  character  of  a  parish  minister,  viz. :  in  the  years  1764  and  1765  at 
Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia;  from  thence- 
forward to  the  year  1780  in  the  churches  of  the  Oxford  Mission,  in  the 
county  of  Philadelphia;  and  from  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1780  to 
July  1st,  1789,  in  Chester  parish,  Kent  county,  Maryland. 

During  the  foregoing  long  period  of  ministerial  service  the  author 
hath  frequently  been  solicited  to  print  or  to  give  manuscript  copies  of 
sundry  of  the  sermons,  and  hath,  as  his  leisure  would  allow,  so  often 
indulged  some  of  his  too  partial  friends  and  hearers  in  the  latter  way 
that  copies  have  been  multiplied  in  manuscript  and  circulated  in  a  con- 
dition not  only  very  incorrect,  but  wholly  without  those  last  improve- 


422  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l800 

ments  and  touches  which  the  best  of  them  stand  much  in  need  of,  and 
which  the  author  had  always  designed  to  bestow  upon  a  few  of  them, 
and  bequeath  them  as  a  legacy  to  his  surviving  friends  and  hearers,  if 
health  and  opportunity  should  permit;  and  if  that  should  net  be  the 
case,  he  had  directed  those  few,  together  with  the  whole  remainder  in 
the  following  list,  to  be  suppressed  from  public  view,  as  hasty  and  un- 
finished compositions. 

But  the  late  change  in  the  author's  situation,  the  resignation  of  his 
parochial  as  well  as  collegiate  charge  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  and  his 
return  to  his  former  station  in  the  College  of  Philadelphia  (added  fo  the 
consideration  of  his  advanced  age)  rendering  it  probable  that  he  can 
never  again  engage  in  any  stated  parochial  duty ;  the  applications  of 
some  of  his  former  friends  and  hearers  have  been  renewed  for  the  pub- 
lication of  sundry  of  those  sermons  which  had  long  since  been  delivered 
before  them,  and  of  which  some  of  them  had  been  supplied  with  copies 
as  aforesaid. 

In  some  late  conversations  with  judicious  and  worthy  persons,  both 
of  the  clergy  and  laity,  respecting  the  present  state  of  our  churches  and 
people  in  America,  it  hath  been  further  suggested  that  the  cause  of  re- 
ligion and  truth  might  be  much  promoted  by  the  publication  of  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  sermons  or  discourses,  digested,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
into  a  system  or  body  of  divinity;  comprehending  the  most  useful  and 
important  articles  of  the  Christian  doctrine;  treated  of  in  a  Scriptural 
and  evangelical  way;  in  an  easy,  affectionate  and  correct  style;  suited 
to  the  minds  and  apprehensions  of  the  young  and  those  of  inferior 
capacity,  as  well  as  edifying  to  those  of  riper  years  and  more  improved 
understanding;  not  running  out  into  learned  niceties  or  debates,  to 
disturb  common  readers  or  hearers;  but  avoiding  all  speculative  and 
controversial'subjects,  or  touching  upon  them  only  to  improve  them,  as 
far  as  possible,  towards  the  purposes  of  practical  godliness  and  vital 
Christianity. 

Although  the  author  hath  not  the  vanity  to  imagine  that  the  following 
sermons  are  wholly  sufficient  to  this  good  design,  yet  they  may  lay  the 
foundation  of  a  more  perfect  work ;  and  he  finds,  upon  an  arrangement 
of  them  under  proper  heads,  that  in  order  to  form  a  tolerably  complete 
system,  only  a  few  sermons  would  be  wanting,  and  those  chiefly  upon 
such  speculative  and  controversial  points  as  the  author  hath  ever  avoided 
in  the  pulpit,  but  which  (if  thought  necessary  in  a  work  of  this  kind) 
might  be  selected  from  some  of  the  ablest  and  most  orthodox  divines 
of  our  Church. 

Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  a  complete  body  of  sermons  and  divinity 
might  be  wholly  selected  or  compiled  in  this  way,  and  attempts  of  that 
kind  have  been  made  with  good  effect.  But,  as  every  age  and  country 
is  best  pleased  with  its  own  forms,  compositions  and  phrases  of  speech, 
the  author  flatters  himself  that  if  it  should  please  God  to  enable  him  to 


l8oo]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  42$ 

finish  those  sermons  in  the  way  he  proposes,  they  will  be  at  least  ac- 
ceptable to  those  who  have  desired  the  publication  of  any  of  them.  He 
further  trusts  that  if  his  design  should  meet  with  that  approbation  and 
countenance  which  he  affectionately  solicits  from  the  members  of  the 
convention,  they  will  be  of  use  to  all  well-disposed  Christians,  and  es- 
pecially to  those  of  the  following  descriptions,  viz.  : 

i.  To  heads  of  families  who  may  think  it  their  duty  to  devote  the 
evenings  of  the  Lord's  Day  to  the  instruction  of  their  own  households. 

2.  To  pious  and  weli-disposed  persons  (remote  from  places  of  public 
worship,  or  unprovided  with  ministers  or  pastors)  who  may  wish  to 
collect  their  neighbors  and  friends  to  spend  some  parts  of  a  Sunday  in 
public  worship,  and  in  reading  sermons  and  books  of  devotion. 

3.  To  young  clergymen  and  preachers,  who,  being  ill-supplied  with 
books,  or  a  variety  of  sermons  on  proper  subjects,  may  be  assisted  in 
their  earlier  compositions  by  the  present  work,  which  it  is  proposed  to 
comprise  in  four  or  five  octavo  volumes,  in  the  same  sized  paper  and 
letter  as  this  address;  two  volumes  to  be  published  yearly,  at  the  rate 
of  one  dollar  per  volume  on  the  delivery  of  the  same,  in  boards,  to  the 
subscribers.  William  Smith. 

This  communication  was  followed  by  a  unanimous  resolution 
of  the  body,  made  on  motion  of  Mr.  J.  Cox,  a  principal  lay  deputy 
from  New  Jersey. 

Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  members  of  this  Convention,  being 
fully  persuaded  that  the  interests  of  religion  and  practical  godliness 
may  be  greatly  promoted  by  the  publication  of  a  body  of  sermons, 
upon  the  plan  proposed  above,  and  being  well  satisfied  of  the  author's 
soundness  in  the  faith,  and  eminent  abilities  for  such  a  work,  do  testify 
their  approbation  of  the  same,  and  their  desire  to  encourage  it  by  annex- 
ing their  names  thereto  as  subscribers. 

William  White,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in,  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  and  President  of  the 
Convention. 

Benjamin  Moore,  D.  D.,  Assistant  Minister  of  Trinity  Church,  in  the 
city  of  New  York;  now  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  that  State. 

Abraham  Beach,  D.  D.,  now  Senior  Minister  of  Trinity  Church,  in  the 
city  of  New  York. 

Moses  Rogers,  Lay  Deputy  from  the  State  of  New  York. 

William  Frazer,  A.  M.,  Rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church,  in  Trenton, 
New  Jersey. 

Uzal  Ogden,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  in  Newark. 

Henry  Waddel,  Rector  of  the  churches  of  Shrewsbury  and  Middle- 
town,  now  of  Trenton,  New  Jersey. 


424  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [180O 

George  H.  Spierin,  A.  M.,  Rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Perth  Amboy. 

John  Cox,  Robert  Strettell  Jones,  Samuel  Ogden,  Lay  Deputies 
from  New  Jersey. 

Samuel  Magaw,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  and  Vice-Provost 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania;  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D.,  Senior 
Minister  in  Christ  Church,  and  St.  Peter's,  Philadelphia;  Joseph  Pil- 
more,  Joseph  G.  J.  Bend,*  Clerical  Deputies  from  Pennsylvania. 

Francis  Hopkinson,  Samuel  Powell,  Tench  Coxe,  Gerardus  Clark- 
son,  Lay  Deputies  from  Pennsylvania. 

Joseph  Coudon,  A.  M.,  Stephen  Sykes,  A.  M.,  Clerical  Deputies  from 
Delaware. 

James  Sykes,  Lay  Deputy  of  Delaware. 

Thomas  J.  Claggett,  D.  D.,  Colin  Ferguson,  D.  D.,f  John  Bissett, 
A.  M.,J  Clerical  Deputies  from  Maryland. 

Richard  B.  Carmichael,  Wm.  Frisby,  Lay  Deputies  from  Maryland. 

Robert  Andrews,  Lay  Deputy  from  Virginia. 

Robert  Smith,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  Philip's  Church,  Principal  of 
Charlestown  College,  Clerical  Deputy  from  South  Carolina. 

W.  W.  Burrows,  Wm.  Brisbane,  Lay  Deputies  from  South  Carolina. 

The  following  named  clergy  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  of  nearly 
every  denomination  testified  their  approbation  by  annexing  their 
names  as  subscribers,  viz.: 

Francis  Beeston,  Rector  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  St.  Mary. 
Nicholas  Collin,  D.  D.(  Rector  of  the  Swedish  Church. 
Henry    Helmuth,    D.  D.,    Minister    of    Zion's    and    Michaelis 
churches. 


*  Joseph  Grove  John  Bend,  D.  D.,  a  native  of  New  York,  ordained  by  Bishop  Pro- 
voost  in  1787.  He  went  to  Pennsylvania,  and  was  Assistant  Minister  of  Christ  Church 
in  1789.  He  afterward  removed  to  Baltimore,  and  in  1791  became  Rector  of  St.  Paul's 
Parish,  Baltimore  county.  He  was  preacher  to  the  convention  in  1808,  and  was  always 
Secretary  to  the  Maryland  Convention,  member  of  the  Standing  Committee,  and  dele- 
gate to  the  General  Convention.  He  published  three  occasional  sermons,  and  edited 
a  number  of  works  for  distribution.     He  died  in  1812,  aged  53. 

f  Colin  Ferguson,  D.  D.,  a  native  of  Kent  county,  Md.,  brought  up  a  Presbyterian, 
ordained  in  1785  by  Bishop  Seabury,  of  Connecticut,  and  became  Rector  of  St.  Paul's, 
Kent,  which  he  resigned  in  1799  ;  was  President  of  Washington  College,  Chestertown, 
from  1789  to  1805.     Died  in  1806,  aged  55. — Allen. 

%  John  Bissett,  A.  M.,  a  native  of  Scotland,  brought  up  in  the  church,  ordained  in 
1786  by  Bishop  Seabury,  and  in  1787  became  Rector  of  South  Sassafras,  Kent  county, 
Md. ;  in  1790  of  North  Sassafras,  Cecil.  He  was  Secretary  to  the  convention,  four 
times  member  of  the  Standing  Committee,  and  delegate  to  the  General  Convention. 
Published  two  sermons.  In  1793  removed  to  New  York.  Died  in  1S10,  aged  48.— 
Allen. 


l8oo]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  425 

Casperus  Weiberg,   D.  D.,   Minister  of  the    German    Reformed 

Church. 
George  Duffield,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Third  Presbyterian  Church. 
Samuel  Jones,   D.  D.,   Pastor  of  the   Baptist   Church   in   Lower 

Dublin. 
William  Marshall,  A.  M.,  Minister  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Scots 

Presbyterian  Church. 
John  Meder,  Minister*of  the  United  Brethren's  Church. 
John  Andrews,  D.  D.,  Professor  of  Philosophy  and  Belles  Lettres 

in  the  College  and  Academy  of  Philadelphia,  and  Rector  of  St. 

James's  Church,  Bristol. 
James  Davidson,  A.  M.,  Professor  of  Humanity  in  the  College  and 

Academy  of  Philadelphia. 
William  Rogers,  A.  M.,  Professor  of  English  and  Oratory,  and 

of  Practical    Mathematics,   in    the    College    and    Academy   of 

Philadelphia. 

The  Hon.  Robert  Morris,  Esq.,  acting  no  doubt  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  his  brother-in-law,  Bishop  White — though  he  was  quite 
competent  himself  to  estimate  rightly  the  literary  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal merits  of  Dr.  Smith — opened  and  received  subscriptions  in 
Congress.     His  subscription  paper  began  thus: 

George  Washington, 
John  Adams, 
William  Grayson, 


Ph.  Schuyler, 


William  Patterson, 
Robert  Morris, 
William  Samuel  Johnson, 
Ralph  Izard, 


George  Read. 


Subscribers  came  in  from  every  part  of  the  country,  indicating 
how  widely  spread  was  Dr.  Smith's  fame  as  a  pulpit  orator.  The 
list  from  Maryland,  in  procuring  which  Mr.  Justice  Goldsborough 
took  much  interest,  was  especially  large,  and  with  the  names  of 
many  persons  in  humble  station,  comprised  the  name  of  nearly 
every  gentleman  of  rank  or  education  in  the  State.  We  give  those 
sent  by  Judge  Goldsborough : 

Hon.  Robert  Hanson  Harrison,  Esq.,  Chief  Justice,  etc. 
Hon.  Alexander  Contee  Hanson,  Esq.,  Chancellor. 
Hon.  Robert  Goldsborough,  one  of  the  Judges. 
Benjamin  Fred.  Aug.  Caes.  Dashiell,  Esq.,  Worcester  county. 


426  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE   OF  THE  [1800 

Hon.  Nicholas  Hammond,  Esq.,  Dorset  county. 

James  Tilghman,  Esq.,  Queen  Anne  county. 

James  Earle,  Esq.,  Talbot  county. 

William  Cooke,  Esq.,  Annapolis  county. 

Gustavus  Scott,  Esq.,  Dorset  county. 

William  Heyward,  Esq.,  Talbot  county. 

William  Barroll,  Esq.,  Elkton,  Cecil  county. 

David  Kerr,  Esq.,  Easton,  Talbot  county. 

Mr.  Jos.  Haskins,  Easton,  Talbot  county. 

Edward  Coursey,  Esq.,  Queen  Anne  county. 

Charles  Blair,  Esq.,  Dorset  county. 

William  Hindman,  Esq.,  Talbot  county. 

Edward  Lloyd,  Esq.,  Talbot  county. 

Pollard  Edmiston,  Esq.,  Talbot  county. 

Matthew  Driver,  Esq.,  Caroline  county. 

Robert  Goldsborough,  Jr.,  Esq.,  Dorset  county. 

Horatio  Ridout,  Esq.,  Annapolis  county. 

Dr.  Charles  Troup,  Easton,  Talbot  county. 

John  Gordon,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  Michael's,  Talbot  county. 

Dr.  John  Lodman  Elbert,  Talbot  county. 

Henry  Dickenson,  Esq.,  Caroline  county. 

Richard  Spriggs,  Esq.,  Annapolis  county. 

The  Rev.  John  Bowie,  D.  D.,  Dorchester  county. 

The  following  were  subscribers  in  Albany,  etc. : 

Rev.  Thomas  Ellison,  A.  M.,  Rector  of  St.  Peter's. 

Rev.  J.  Basset,  A.  M.,  Jr.,  Minister  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church. 

Rev.  Samu.l  Smith,  Minister  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in 

Saratoga. 
Mr.  Dudley  Walsh. 
Mr.  Goldsborough  Banyar,  Jr. 
Mr.  P.  S.  Van  Rensselaer. 
Hon.  Leonard  Gansevoort,  Esq. 
Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  Esq.,  of  Rensselaerwick. 
Daniel  Hale,  Esq. 
Barent  Roorback,  Esq.,  of  Ballton. 
Mr.  Charles  Martin,  Schenectady. 
John  Tayler,  Esq. 
Mr.  Daniel  J.  Hewson. 


l8oo]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,    D.  D.  427 

Dirck  Ten  Broeck,  Esq. 

John  Bradstreet  Schuyler,  Esq.,  of  Saratoga. 

Mr.  William  Fryer. 

Mr.  William  Shepherd. 

I  am  not  aware  of  the  reasons  why  the  publication  was  delayed. 
The  large  operations  in  land,  in  which  it  is  known  that  Dr.  Smith 
was  engaged — although  from  my  want  of  familiarity  with  their 
particulars,  I  have  not  gone  into  any  full  statement  of  them — in 
part  absorbed  his  attention.  But  the  Yellow  Fever  of  1793,  and  a 
return  of  the  pestilence,  or  something  much  like  it,  in  1795,  and 
again  in  1797 — though  in  these  two  years,  especially  in  the  for- 
mer, in  forms  less  terrible  than  in  the  first-named  year — was  well 
calculated,  attended  as  it  was  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Smith  with  losses 
so  near  to  him  and  so  desolating,  to  arrest  all  enterprise  in  the 
way  of  publication.     He  himself  thus  refers  to  the  case: 

The  distresses  that  followed  in  my  family — first,  the  loss  of  a  favorite 
son,  blessed  with  every  literary  accomplishment,  especially  in  his  medi- 
cal profession,  and  the  delight  of  his  acquaintance;*  soon  afterwards  the 
loss  of  an  amiable  daughter,  in  goodness  approaching  that  of  an  angel 
as  nearly  as  a  mortal  condition  would  allow  ;f  and,  more  than  all  this, 
the  loss  of  a  dear  wife — a  woman  of  whom  the  world  was  scarce  worthy, 
much  less  he  whose  many  bereavements  of  this  kind  have  brought  his 
gray  hairs  down  with  sorrow  to  the  very  brink  of  the  grave — I  say 
these  sad  losses  damped  the  preparation  of  the  work  for  the  public. 
Little  anxious  to  devote  the  melancholy  moments  that  succeeded  those 
losses — especially  the  death  of  a  beloved  wife — to  the  review  of  old 
writings  and  the  superintending  a  press,  my  mind  was  carried  forward 
to  more  solemn  subjects :  the  consummation  of  earthly,  and  the  final 
establishment  of  heavenly  things;  and  my  reading  confined  to  such 
books  as  I  had  at  hand  on  those  subjects. 

However,  in  the  year  1800  Dr.  Smith  began  to  arrange  all  his 
writings  for  publication.  Had  he  lived  to  see  through  the  press 
all  that  he  thus  arranged,  we  should  have  had  five,  if  not  six,  8vo. 
volumes  with  his  name.  As  it  is,  we  have  but  two — those  two 
from  which  we  have  made  in  our  biography  such  copious  ex- 
tracts.    We  give  the  table  of  their  contents. 

*  Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  M.  D.  \  Mrs.  Williamina  Elizabeth  Goldsborough. 


428  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l8O0 

FIRST  VOLUME. 
PART  I. 

SERMONS   ON    DEATH,  A  RESURRECTION   FROM  THE  DEAD,  A  FUTURE  JUDG- 
MENT,  AND  AN  ETERNAL  WORLD  TO  COME. 

SERMON  PAGE 

I.  On  the  death  of  a  beloved  pupil,  preached  in  Christ  Church, 
September  1,  1754,  with  copies  of  verses  to  his  memory,  by  sundry 

of  his  fellow-students       -  -  -  -  -  -       1 

II.  At  the  funeral  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Jenney,  LL.  D.,  Rector  of 
Christ  Church,  and  St.  Peter's;  preached  in  Christ  Church,  Jan- 
uary 10,  1758      -  -  -  -  -  -  -22 

III.  At  the  funeral  of  David  Griffith,  D.  D.,  Bishop  elect  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Virginia;  delivered  in  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  on   Monday,  August  8,  1789         -  -     38 

IV.  Death  conquering  and  conquered  ;  the  first  of  the  sermons  from 
1  Thess.  iv.  13-18;  preached  the  first  Sunday  in  December  of 
1793,  being  the  first  of  eight  sermons  on  the  great  visitation  by 

the  epidemical  sickness,  commonly  called  the  Yellow  Fever         -     53 

V.  Preached  December  8,  1793,  on  the  same  subject  and  text         -     65 

VI.  Preached  December  12,  1793,  on  Ps-  bcviii.  34,  etc.,  being  the 
day  set  apart  for  a  general  thanksgiving  for  our  deliverance  from 
the  rage  of  the  grievous  calamity,  commonly  called  the  Yellow 
Fever       -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -     76 

VII.,  VIII.,  IX.,  X.,  XI.  A  continuation  of  the  sermons  from  1 
Thess.  iv.  13-18  -  -  -         105,  118,  140,  153,  178 

XII.  Funeral  sermon  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Thomas  Graeme  -   195 

XIII.  Funeral  sermon  on  the  death  of  Col.  Joseph  Nicholson        -  210 

PART  II. 

I.  An  oration  in  memory  of  General  Montgomery,  and  of  the  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  who  fell  with  him,  December  31,  1775,  before 
Quebec;  delivered  February  19,  1776,  in  the  great  Calvinist 
Church,  Philadelphia,  by  the  appointment  and  at  the  desire  of 
the  honorable  Continental  Congress         -  -  -  -       1 

II.  An  eulogium  on  Benjamin  Franklin,  LL.  D.  ;  delivered  March 
1,  1 79 1,  in  the  great  Lutheran  Church,  Philadelphia,  before,  and 

by  appointment  of,  the  American   Philosophical   Society  -     42 

III.  "The  Hermit,"  in  eight  numbers;  first  published  at  Phila- 
delphia, in  the  American  Magazine,  from  October,  1757,  to 
October,  1758,  inclusive  -  -  -  -  -     95 

IV.  A  philosophical  meditation  and  religious  address  to  the 
Supreme  Being    -------   153 


ISOO]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  429 

SERMON  PACK 

V.  A  general  idea  of  the  College  of  Mirania,  with  an  account  of 
the  College  and  Academy  of  Philadelphia ;   first   published   in 

1753 l65 


SECOND  VOLUME. 
TWO  PREFATORY  LETTERS. 

PACK 

Letter  I.  On  the  Office  and  Duty  of  Protestant  Ministers,  and  the 
Right  of  exercising  Pulpit  liberty  in  the  handling  of  Civil  as  well 
as  Religious  subjects,  especially  in  times  of  public  danger  and 
calamity  -  -  -  -  -  -  -       1 

Letter  II.  An  earnest  Address  to  the  Colonies  at  the  opening  of  the 
Campaign,  1758.  Drawn  up  and  published  at  the  request  of 
Brigadier-General  Forbes  -  -  -  -  -     17 

THREE  MASONIC  SERMONS. 

Sermon  I.  On  Brotherly  Love,  etc. ;  preached  on  the  anniversary 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  June  24,  1755     -  -  -  -     27 

Sermon  II.  Preached  on  Monday,  December  28,  1778,  celebrated 
as  the  anniversary  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist.  With  an  appen- 
dix on  the  Character  of  Lucius  Quintius  Cincinnatus       -  "43 

Sermon  III.  Preached  before  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Communication, 
on  St.  John  the  Baptist's  day,  June  24,  1795       -  -  -     73 

THREE  FAST  SERMONS. 

Sermon  IV.  Preached  May  21,  1756,  on  the  Public  Fast,  appointed 
by  the  government  of  Pennsylvania  -  -  -  -     90 

Sermon  V.  Preached  July  20,  1755,  being  on  the  first  American 
Fast,  recommended  by  Congress  -  -  -  -   112 

Sermon  VI.  Preached  May  3,  17S1,  on  the  recommendation  of 
Congress  .    -  -  -  -  -  -  -I27 

A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON. 

Sermon  VII.  Preached  December  13,  1781,  being  a  day  set  apart 
by  Congress  for  a  General  Thanksgiving  -  -  -  141 

SEVEN  MILITARY  SERMONS. 

Sermon  VIII.  Preached  April  5,  1757,  at  the  request  of  Brigadier- 
General  Stanwix,  to  the  soldiers  under  his  command,  previous 
to  their  march,  after  Braddock's  defeat,  to  suppress  the  ravages 
of  the  French  and  Indians  on  our  frontier  settlements     -  -   155 

Sermon  IX.   Preached  in  the  great  Hall  of  the  College  of  Philadel- 


43°  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [iSoO 

phia,  April  10,  1768,  as  Chaplain  pro  tempore,  appointed  by 
Colonel  Wilkins,  to  the  Eighteenth  or  Royal  Regiment  of  Ire- 
land, on  the  Christian  Soldier's  Military  Duty    -  -  -   179 

Sermon  X.  Preached  May  1,  1768,  on  the  same  occasion  and  in 
the  same  place     -  -  -  -  -  -  -190 

Sermon  XI.  Preached  May  8,  1768,  in  the  same  place  to  said  regi- 
ment; to  which  was  added  the  celebrated  speech  of  a  Creek 
Indian  against  the  immoderate  use  of  spirituous  liquors  -  -  201 

Sermon  XII.   The  Christian  Soldier's  Spiritual  Duty,  June,  1768  -  225 

Sermon  XIII.  On  the  same  subject,  being  the  last,  or  farewell,  to 
the  said  regiment — then  under  marching  orders  -  -  -   235 

Sermon  XIV.  Preached  June  23,  1775,  on  the  then  alarming  situ- 
ation of  American  affairs,  at  the  request  of  Colonel  Cadwalader 
and  the  officers  of  the  Third  Battalion  of  Volunteer  Militia  of 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  -  -  -  -  -  ~  251 

CINCINNATI  SERMON. 

Sermon  XV.  On  Temporal  and  Spiritual  Salvation.  Preached 
July  4,  1 790,  before,  and  at  the  request  of,  the  Pennsylvania 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati  .....   287 

TWO   SERMONS 

ON  THE    PROPAGATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE   SCIENCES  AMONG  THE 
HEATHEN  AMERICANS. 

Sermon  XVI.  Concerning  the  Conversion  of  the  Heathen  Ameri- 
cans, and  final  propagation  of  Christianity  and  the  Sciences  to 
the  ends  of  the  Earth.  Preached  May  2,  1760,  before  a  volun- 
tary convention  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
places  adjacent,  and  published  at  their  joint  request        -  -  308 

Sermon  XVII.  On  the  same  subject,  preached  before  the  Trustees, 
Masters  and  Scholars  of  the  College  and  Academy  of  Philadel- 
phia, at  the  Anniversary  Commencement,  May,  1 761      -  -  337 

A  DEDICATION  SERMON. 

Sermon  XVIII.  On  the  Dedication  and  first  opening  of  St.  Peter's 
Church  for  public  worship.  Preached  in  the  said  church,  Phila- 
delphia, September  4,  1761  .....  -551 

TWO  INTRODUCTORY  SERMONS, 

BEFORE    RELIGIOUS    CORPORATIONS    FOR    THE    INSTITUTION    OF    PUBLIC 

CHARITIES. 

Sermon  XIX.   Preached  October  10,  1769,  in  Christ  Church,  Phil- 


ISOO]  KEV.    WILLIAM   SMITH,    D.    D.  43 1 

PAGE 

adelphia,  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Corporation  for  the  Relief  of 
the  Widows  and  Children  of  Clergymen  in  the  Communion  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  America;  particularly  in  the  provinces 
(now  States)  of  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  -  385 

Sermon  XX.  Preached  April  6,  1795,  as  an  introduction  to  a  plan 
for  the  Establishment  and  Encouragement  of  Itinerant  Preachers, 
or  Missionaries,  on  the  Frontier  Settlements  of  the  United 
States;  with  a  Supplement  or  Second  Part,  stating  and  warning 
against  the  abominable  tenets  of  the  Illuminati,  and  the  doc- 
trines of  the  New  Philosophy      -----  444 

TWO  GENERAL  CONVENTION  SERMONS. 

Sermon  XXI.  Preached  June  23,  1784,  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  at 
the  first  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Clergy  in  that 
State,  assisted  by  Lay  Representatives     -  483 

Sermon  XXII.  Preached  October  7,  1785,  at  the  request  of,  and 
before,  the  General  Convention  of  the  Bishops,  Clergy  and  Laity 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church ;  on  occasion  of  the  first  in- 
troduction of  the  Liturgy  and  public  service  of  said  Church,  as 
altered  and  recommended  for  future  use  in  the  United  States  of 
America  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  524 

A  CONSECRATION  SERMON. 

Sermon  XXIII.  First  preached  September  17,  1792,  in  Trinity 
Church,  New  York,  before  the  General  Convention  of  the 
Bishops,  Clergy  and  Laity  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
at  the  Consecration  of  Thomas  John  Clagget,  D.  D.,  as  Bishop 
Elect  for  the  said  Church  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  Preached, 
in  substance  also,  at  the  two  following  consecrations,  viz. :  of 
Robert  Smith,  D.  D.,  for  South  Carolina,  September  13,  1795; 
Edward  Bass,  D.  D.,  for  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire, 
May,  1787.     Both  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia  -  -  548 

Dr.  Smith  also  left  this  list  of  ninety-eight  sermons,  which,  as 
he  arranged  them — and  throwing  out  certain  ones  marked  with  an 
asterisk  (  *  ),  which  are  printed  in  Maxwell's  two  volumes  or  else- 
where— would  have  made  four  more  volumes  of  sermons  alone, 
independent  of  his  other  works.  A  table  of  the  subjects  or  prin- 
cipal heads,  and  of  the  texts  of  the  sermons,  in  the  proposed  order 
of  publication,  was  part  of  the  document. 


432  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  l800 

PART  I. 
Sermons  I.,  II.  On  the  Being  and  Attributes  of  God. 

Ex.  iii.  13,  14. — And  Moses  said  unto  God,  Behold,  when  I  come  unto  the  children 
of  Israel,  and  shall  say  unto  them,  The  God  of  your  fathers  hath  sent  me  unto  you ; 
and  they  shall  say  to  me,  What  is  his  name  ?  what  shall  I  say  unto  them  ?  And  God 
said  unto  Moses,  I  am  that  I  am.  And  he  said,  Thus  shall  thou  say  unto  the  children 
of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you. 

Sermon  III.  The  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  are 
the  true  Word  of  God,  and  a  Complete  Revelation  of  his  Divine 
Will  to  Man. 

Heb.  i.  1,  2. — God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners,  spake  in  time  past 
unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son, 
whom  he  hath  appointed  the  Heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  also  he  made  the  worlds. 

Sermon  IV.   The  Folly  of  Infidelity. 

Psalm  xiv.  1. — The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  There  is  no  God. 

Sermon  V.   The  Wisdom  and  Reasonableness  of  Faith  in  God. 

Heb.  xi.  6. — Without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  him;  for  he  that  cometh  to  God 
must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  a  Rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him. 

Sermon  VI.  Of  the  Creation  and  Nature  of  Man,  and  the  Immortality 
of  the  Soul. 

Psalm  viii.  5,  6;  Heb.  ii.  7. — Thou  madest  him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels;  thou 
crownedst  him  with  glory  and  honor,  and  didst  set  him  over  the  works  of  thy  hands. 

Sermon  VII.   Of  the  Old  and  New  Covenant,  the  Law  and  the  Gospel. 

Heb.  vii.  19. — For  the  law  made  nothing  perfect,  but  the  bringing  of  a  better  hope 
did ;  by  the  which  we  draw  nigh  unto  God. 

Sermon  VIII.  Of  the  Difference  between  Legal  and  Evangelical  Right- 
eousness, or  the  Righteousness  of  Faith. 

Rom.  ix.  31-33. — But  Israel  which  followed  after  the  law  of  righteousness,  hath  not 
attained  to  the  law  of  righteousness.  Wherefore?  Because  they  sought  it  not  by 
faith,  but  as  it  were  by  the  works  of  the  law  ;  for  they  stumbled  at  that  stumbling- 
stone,  as  it  is  written,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  a  stumbling-stone  and  rock  of  offence, 
and  whosoever  believeth  on  him  shall  not  be  ashamed. 

Sermon  IX.  The  Honor  and  Dignity  of  the  Christian  Ministry  and 
Profession. 

Rom.  i.  16. — I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ;  for  it  is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth. 

Sermon  X.   The  Grace  and  Holiness  of  the  Christian  Calling. 

2  Tim.  i.  9. — God  hath  saved  us  and  called  us  with  an  holy  calling;  not  according 
to  our  works,  but  according  to  his  own  purpose  and  grace,  which  was  given  us  in 
Christ  Jesus,  before  the  world  began. 


ISOO]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.   D.  433 

Sermon  XL   The  Purity  of  the  same. 

Prov.  xxx.  5,  6. — Every  word  of  God  is  pure.  He  is  a  shield  unto  them  that  put 
their  trust  in  him.  Add  thou  not  unto  his  words,  lest  he  reprove  thee,  and  thou  be 
found  a  liar. 

Sermon  XII.   On  Hearing  the  Word  of  God. 

John  viii.  47. — He  that  is  of  God  heareth  God's  Word. 

Sermon  XIII.  On  Doing  the  Word  of  God. 

]ames  i.  22. — Be  ye  doers  of  the  word  and  not  hearers  only,  deceiving  your  own 
selves. 

Sermon  XIV.   Of  Steadfastness  in  the  Faith. 

[Preached  at  Annapolis,  Tune  23,  1784,  before  a  convention  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Maryland.] 

2  Tim.  i.  13. — Hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words  which  thou  hast  heard  of  me,  in 
faith  and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Sermon  XV.   The  Victory  of  Faith. 

I  T"hn  v.  I,  4. — Whosoever  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  born  of  God. 
Whatsoever  is  born  of  God  overcometh  the  world;  and  this  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh,  even  our  faith. 

PART  II. 

Sermon  XVI.  Christ  the  True  and  Promised  Messiah.  [In  two  Parts.] 
[Preached  on  Christmas  day.] 
Luke  ii.  10-14. — And  the  angel  said  unto  them,  Fear  not ;  for  behold  T  bring  you 
good  tidings  of  great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people;  for  unto  you  is  born  this  day 
in  the  city  of  David  a  Saviour,  which  is  Christ  the  Lord.  And  this  shall  be  a  sign 
unto  you  :  ye  shall  find  the  Babe  wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes  lying  in  a  manger. 
And  suddenly  there  was  with  the  angel  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host,  praising  God 
and  saying,  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  towards  men. 

Sermons  XVII.,  XVIII.   Christ  the  True  Shepherd. 

[Preached  on  Lhe  fourth  Sunday  in  Advent,  and  on  Christmas  day.] 

Isa.  xl.  1,  2,  10,  II. — Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people,  saith  your  God.  Speak 
ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  cry  unto  her  that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that 
her  iniquity  is  pardoned.  Behold  the  Lord  God  will  come  with  strong  hand,  and  his 
arm  shall  rule  for  him.     Behold  his  reward  is  with  him  and  his  work  before  him. 

He  shall  feed  his  flock  like  a  shepherd :  he  shall  gather  the  lambs  with  his  arm,  and 
carry  them  in  his  bosom,  and  shall  gently  lead  those  that  are  with  young. 

Sermons  XIX.,  XX.   Christ's  other  glorious  Titles. 

[Preached  on  Christmas  day,  and  the  Sunday  following.] 

La.  ix.  6. — For  unto  us  a  Child  is  born,  unto  us  a  Son  is  given  ;  and  the  government 
shall  be  upon  his  shoulder;  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the 
Mighty  God,  the  Everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

Sermon  XXI.   Of  the  Universality  and  Extent  of  Christ's  Kingdom. 

[Preached  on  the  Epiphany.] 
Isa.  ix.  7. — Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace,  there  shall  be  no  end. 
2% 


434  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [180O 

Sermon  XXII.  Concerning  the  Conversion  of  the  Heathen  Americans, 
and  the  final  Propagation  of  Christianity  and  the  Sciences  to  the 
Ends  of  the  Earth.     [In  two  Parts.] 

[Part  I.  Preached  before  a  convention  of  Episcopal  clergy  in  Christ  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, May  2,  1760.] 

[Part  II.  Preached  before  the  Trustees,  Masters  and  Scholars,  at  the  fir-t  Anniver- 
sary Commencement,  in  the  college  there,  to  which  is  added  a  Charge  to  ihe  first 
Graduates.] 

Psalm  ii.  8. — Ask  of  me  and  I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance,  and 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession. 

Sermon  XXIII.   On  the  same  subject. 

[Preached  on  the  dedicaticn  of  Washington  College,  in  the  State  of  Maryland, 
June  23,  1789.] 

Malachi  i.  11. — From  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  to  the  going  down  of  the  same,  my 
name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles;  and  in  every  place  incense  shall  be  offered 
unto  my  name  and  a  pure  oftering ;  for  my  name  shall  be  great  among  the  heathen 
sailh  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

Sermon  XXIV.   On  Christ's  Fasting  and  Temptation. 

[Preached  in  Lent.] 
Matt.  iv.  1-3. — Then  was  Jesus   led  up  of  the   Spirit   into   the  wilderness,  to   be 
tempted  of  the  devil.     And  when  he  had   fasted  forty  days  and   forty  nights,  he  was 
afterwards  an  hungered.     And  when  the  tempter  came  to  him,  he  said,  If  thou  be  the 
Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread. 

Sermon  XXV.   On  the  Institution  of  the  Holy  Sacrament. 
[Preached  on  the  Sunday  before  Easter.] 
Luke  xxii.  15,  etc. — And  he  said  unto  them,  With  desire  I  have  desired  to  eat  this 
Passover  with  you  before  I  suffer;  for  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not  any  more  eat  thereof 
until  it  be  fulfilled  in  the  kingdom  of  God.     And  he  took  the  cup,  etc. 

Sermon  XXVI.  On  the  Sufferings  and  Death  of  Christ. 

From  the  same  text.      [Preached  on  Good  Friday.] 

Sermon  XXVII.  On  the  same  subject. 

[Preached  on  Good  Friday.] 
Lam.  i.  12. — Is  it  nothing  unto  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by?     Behold  and  see,  if  there 
be  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sorrow,  which  is  done  unto  me,  wherewith  the  Lord  hath 
afflicted  me,  in  the  day  of  his  fierce  anger. 

Sermon  XXVIII.   On  the  Certainty  of  the  Resurrection  of  Christ. 

[Preached  on  Easter  day.] 
Job  xix.  25,  26. — I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that  he  shall  stand  at  the 
latter  day  upon  the  earth  ;  and  thou.gh  after  my  skin  worms  destroy  this  body,  yet  ill 
my  flesh  shall  I  see  God. 

Sermon  XXIX.   On  the  Power  of  the  Resurrection  of  Christ. 
[Preached  on  Easter  day.] 
Phil.  iii.  8,  10. — Yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count  all   things  but  loss  for  the  excellency 
of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord  ;    for  whom  I  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all 
things,  and  do, count  them  ibut  dung — that  I  may  know  him,  and   the   power  of  his 
resurrection. 


l8oo]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH  D.  D.  435 

Sermon  XXX.   The  Resurrection  of  Christ,  the  Pledge  and  Proof  of 
Man's  Immortality,  and  a  full  Evidence  of  the  Truth  of  Christianity. 

Col.  iii.  4. — When  Christ  who  is  our  life  shall  appear,  then  shall  ye  also  appear  vvitli 
him  in  glory. 

I  Cor.  xv.  12-14. — If  Christ  be  preached  that  he  rose  from  the  dead,  how  say  some 
among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  But  if  there  be  no  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  then  is  Christ  not  risen  ;  and  if  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preach- 
ing vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain. 

Sermon  XXXI.  On  the  Ascension  of  Christ. 

Psalm  xxiv.  7. — Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates;  and  be  ye  lift  up,  ye  everlasting- 
doors,  and  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in. 

Sermon  XXXII.   On  the  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

[Preached  on  Whitsunday.] 

John  xiv.  16. — And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you  another  Comfortei, 
that  he  may  abide  with  you  for  ever. 

Sermon  XXXIII.   Of  the  Receiving  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Acts  xix.  2,  3. — He  said  unto  them,  Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  yt 
believed?  And  they  said  unto  him,  We  have  not  so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be 
any  Holy  Ghost.     And  he  said  unto  them,  Unto  what  then  were  ye  baptized? 

Sermon  XXXIV.   On  the  Spirit  of  Adoption. 

[Preached  on  Whitsunday.] 
Rom.  viii.  14,  15. — For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons 
of  God ;  for  ye  have  not  received  the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear,  but  ye  have  re- 
ceived the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father. 

FOUR    SERMONS   ON   THE    FRUITS   OF   THE    SPIRIT. 

Sermon  XXXV.     1.  Prayer. 

Rom.  viii.  15  (latter  part  of  the  foregoing  text). — Whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father. 

Sermon  XXXVI.     2.  Praise  and  Thanksgiving. 

[Preached   in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  upon  the  introduction  of  the  organ.] 

Psalms  xlvii.  7,  and  cl.  4. — Sing  unto  the  Lord  with  thanksgiving.  Sing  praise  unto 
our  God  upon  the  harp.     Praise  him  with  stringed  instruments  and  organs. 

Sermon  XXXVII.     3.  Faith,  Hope  and  Charity. 

I  Cor.  xiii.  3. — And  now  abideth  faith,  hope  and  charity,  these  three;  but  the  great- 
est of  these  is  charity. 

Sermon  XXXVIII.    4.  Love,  Joy,  etc.     Goodness,  Righteousness  and 
Truth. 

Gal.  v.  22,  23. — But  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentle- 
ness, goodness,  truth. 

Epn   v.  9. — The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  in  all  goodness  and  righteousness  and  truth. 


43*5  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1800 

Sermon   XXXIX.   The   Danger  and  Sin  of  Resisting  the   Spirit,   and 
falling  away  from  Grace. 

Heb.  x.  28,  29. — He  that  despised  Moses's  law,  died  without  mercy,  under  two  or 
three  witnesses;  of  how  much  sorer  punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he  be  thought 
worthy  who  hath  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  hath  counted  the  blood 
of  the  Covenant,  wherewith  he  was  sanctified  an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  despite 
unto  the  Spirit  of  Grace. 

Sermons  XL.,  XLI.   The  Safety  and   Happiness  of  Walking  after  the 
Spirit  and  Loving  God's  Law. 

Rom.  viii.  1. — There  is  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk 
not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit. 

P>alm  cxix. — Great  peace  have  they  which  love  thy  law,  and  nothing  shall  offend 
them. 

PART   III. 

Sermon  XLII.   The  Call  or  Invitations  under  the  Law  and  the  Prophets. 

Isa.  xlv.  22,  23. — Look  unto  me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the  earth;  for  I  am 
God,  and  there  is  none  else.  I  have  sworn  by  myself;  the  word  is  gone  out  of  my 
mouth  in  righteousness  and  shall  not  return,  That  unto  me  every  knee  shall  bow,  every 
tongue  shall  swear. 

Sermon  XLIII.   The  Call  or  Invitations  under  the  Gospel. 

Matt.  xi.  28-30. — Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly 
in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden 
is  light. 

Sermon  XLIV.  The  Duty  of  Hearing  the  Call  and  drawing  near  to  God. 
Psalm  lxxiii.  28. — It  is  good  for  me  to  draw  near  to  God. 

Sermon  XLV.   Of  the  Fear  of  God,  under  the  Law. 

Job  xxv.  2,  4.  —  Dominion  and  fear  are  with  him.  How  can  man  be  justified  with 
God  ?     Or  how  can  he  be  clean  that  is  born  of  a  woman  ? 

Sermon  XLVI.   Of  the  Fear  of  God,  under  the  Gospel. 

2  Tim.  i.  7. — For  God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear,  but  of  power,  and  of  love, 
and  of  a  sound  mind. 

1  John  iv.  18. — There  is  no  fear  in  love;  but  perfect  love  casteth  out  fear;  because 
fear  hath  torment  in  it.     Me  that  feareth  is  not  made  perfect  in  love. 

Sermons  XLVII.,  XLVIII.    Of  Fear  and  Obedience,  as  the  whole  Duty 
of  Man  under  the  Law. 

Eccl.  xii.  13,  14. — Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.  Fear  God,  and 
keep  his  commandments  ;  for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man.  For  God  shall  bring  every 
work  into  judgment,  with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good,  or  whether  it  be  bad. 

Sermons  XLIX.,  L.    Of  Love  and  Vital    Religion,  as   the  whole  Duty 
of  Man,  under  the  Gospel. 


ISOO]  REV.    WILLIAM   SMI  III,  D.  D.  437 

I  John  .ii.  23,  24. — This  is  his  commandment  that  we  should  believe  on  the  name 
of  his  Son  [esus  Christ,  and  love  one  another  as  he  gave  us  commandment;  and  he 
that  keepeth  his  commandments  dwelleth  in  him,  and  he  in  him.  And  hereby  we 
know  that  he  abideth  in  us  by  the  Spirit  which  he  hath  given  us. 

Sermon  LI.    Christ's  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  World. 

John  xviii.  36. —  Jesus  answered,  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world. 

Sermon  LII.   The  Christian's  Conversation  is  in  Heaven. 

Phil.  iii.  20. — For  our  conversation  is  in  heaven,  from  whence  also  we  look  for  'he 
Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Sermon    LI II.     Fellowship   with    God    and    the   Works   of    Darkness 

irreconcilable. 

I  John  i.  5-7. — God  is  Light,  and  in  him  is  no  darkness  at  all.  If  we  say  that  we 
have  fellowship  with  him  and  walk  in  darkness,  we  lie,  and  do  not  the  truth  :  but  if  we 
walk  in  the  light  as  he  is  in  the  light,  we  have  fellowship  one  with  another,  and  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin. 

PART  IV. 

Sermon  LIV.   Of  Sin  and  the  Duty  of  Confession. 

I  John  i.  8,  9. — If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves  and  the  truth 
is  not  in  us;  but  if  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness. 

Sermon  LV.   The  same  subject,  from  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son, 

viz. : 

Luke  xv.  18. — I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father,  etc. 

Sermon  LVI.   Of  Repentance  and  Salvation. 

Ezek.  xviii.  27. — When  the  wicked  man  turneth  away  from  his  wickedness  that  he 
hath  committed,  and  doeth  that  which  is  lawful  and  right,  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive. 

Sermon  LVII.  An  Exhortation  to  Repentance  and  Good  Works. 

Isa.  i.  16,  17. — Wash  ye,  make  you  clean;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from 
before  mine  eyes,  cease  10  do  evil;  learn  to  do  well;  seek  judgment,  relieve  the  op- 
pressed, judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow. 

Sermon  LVIII.  Want  of  Consideration. 

Isa.  i.  3. — The  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib;  but  Israel  doth 
not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider. 

Sermon  LIX.  Against  Presumption. 

I  Cor.  x.  12. — Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed  lest  he  fall. 

Sermon  LX.   On  Redeeming  the  Time. 

Rom.  xiii.  12. — The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand;  let  us  therefore  cast  off 
the  works  of  darkness,  and  let  us  put  on  the  armour  of  light. 

Sermon  LXI.   On  Submission  to  the  Will  of  God. 

I  Sam.  iii.  18. — And  Samuel  told  him  every  whit,  and  hid  nothing  from  him.  And 
he  said,  It  is  the  Lord,  let  him  do  what  seemeth  him  good. 


438  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [180O 

Sermon  LXII.   Of  St.  Peter's  Want  of  Faith. 

Matt.  xiv.  30,  31. — But  when  he  saw  the  wind  boisterous,  he  was  afraid;  and  be- 
ginning to  sink,  he  cried,  saying,  Lord  save  me.  And  immediately  Jesus  stretched 
forth  his  hand  and  caught  him,  and  said  unto  him,  O  thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore 
didst  thou  doubt? 

Sermon  LXIII.   St.  Peter's  Tears  and  Repentance. 

Luke  xxii.  60-62. — While  he  yet  spake,  the  cock  crew;  and  the  Lord  turned  and 
looked  upon  Peter.  And  Peter  remembered  the  word  of  the  Lord,  how  he  had  said 
unto  him,  Before  the  cock  crow  thou  shalt  deny  me  thrice.  And  Peter  went  out  and 
wept  bitterly. 

Sermon  LXIV.  An  Exhortation  to  Prayer. 

Luke  xxii.  46. — Why  sleep  ye  ?   rise  and  pray,  lest  ye  enter  into  temptation. 

Sermon  LXV.   Encouragement  to  Prayer  and  Seeking  God. 

Jer.  viii.  22. — Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead  ?  Is  there  no  physician  there?  Why 
then  is  not  the  health  of  the  daughter  of  my  people  recovered  ? 

Sermon  LXVI.   Of  the  new  Creature. 

Gal.  vi.  15. — For  in  Christ  Jesus  neither  circumcision  availeth  any  thing,  nor  un- 
circumcision,  but  a  new  creature. 

Sermon  LXVII.   The  Knowledge  of  God,  the  Christian's  true  Glory. 

Jer.  ix.  23,  24. — Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Let  not  the  wise  man  glory  in  his  wisdom, 
neither  let  the  mighty  man  glory  in  his  might,  let  not  the  rich  man  glory  in  his  riches; 
but  let  him  that  glorieth  glory  in  this,  that  he  understandeth  and  knoweth  me,  that  I 
am  the  Lord  which  exercise  loving  kindness,  judgment  and  righteousness  in  the  earth; 
for  in  these  things  I  delight,  saith  the  Lord. 

Sermon  LXVIII.   The  Lord  our  Righteousness. 

[An  Advent  Sermon.] 

Jer.  xxiii.  6. — In  his  days  Judah  shall  be  saved  and  Israel  shall  dwell  safely;  aria 
this  is  his  name  whereby  he  shall  be  called,  The  Lord  our  Righteousness. 

Sermon  LXIX.  An  Advent  Sermon. 

Matt.  xi.  5. — The  poor  have  the  gospel  preached. 

THREE   SERMONS  ;    OF   RELATIVE   DUTIES,  VIZ.  : 

Sermon  LXX.    1.  Of  Husbands  and  Wives. 

Col.  iii.  iS,  19. — Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your  own  husbands,  as  it  is  fit  unto 
the  Lord.     Husbands,  love  your  wives  and  be  not  bitter  against  them. 

Sermon  LXXI. — Part  I.    2.  Of  Parents  and  Children. 

Col.  iii.  20,  21. — Children,  obey  your  parents  in  all  things;  for  this  is  well  pleasing 
unto  the  Lord.     Fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  anger,  lest  they  be  discouraged. 

Part  II.   On  the  Education  of  Children. 

Prov.  xxii.  6. — Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he 
will  not  depart  from  it. 


i8oo]  fiEi:    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  A19 

Sermon  LXXII.   3.  Of"  Masters  and  Servants. 

Col.  iii.  22,  and  iv.  I. — Servants,  obey  in  all  things  your  masters,  according  to  the 
flesh;  not  with  eye-service  as  mcn-pleascrs,  but  in  singleness  of  heart,  fearing  God. 
Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and  equal;  knowing  that  ye  also 
have  a  Master  in  heaven. 

Sermon  LXXIII.    On  Destroying  the  Works  of  the  Devil. 

I  John  iii.  S.- — For  this  purpose  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested,  that  he  might 
destroy  the  works  of  the  devil. 

Sermon   LXXIV.    Of   Diligence   in   our   Calling,  both   Temporal   and 
Spiritual. 

I  Cor.  vii.  24. — Brethren,  let  every  man  wherein  he  is  called,  therein  abide  with  God. 

Sermons  LXXV.,  LXXVI.   Of  Sanctification  and  Redemption. 

I  Cor.  i.  30,  31. — But  of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God  is  made  unto  us 
wisdom  ami  righteousness  ami  sanctification  and  redemption;  That  according  as  it  is 
written,  lie  that  glorieth  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord. 

Sermon  LXXVII.   Of  Keeping  the  Sabbath  Day. 

Ex.  xx.  S. — Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 

Luke  vi.  7-9. — And  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  watched  him,  whether  he  would  heal 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  that  they  might  find  an  accusation  against  him.  But  he  knew 
their  thoughts,  and  said  to  the  man  which  had  the  withered  hand,  Rise  up  and  stand 
forth  in  the  midst.     And  he  rose  and  stood  forth. 

Then  said  Jesus  unto  them,  I  will  ask  you  one  thing,  Is  it  lawful  on  the  Sabbath 
days  to  do  good,  or  to  do  evil  ?  to  save  life,  or  to  destroy  it?  And  looking  round  about 
upon  them  all,  he  said  unto  the  man,  Stretch  forth  thy  hand.  And  he  did  so,  and  his 
hand  was  restored  whole  as  the  other. 

Sermon  LXXVIII.   The  great  Duty  of  Public  Worship,  and  of  Erecting 
and  Dedicating  Proper  Houses  for  that  Purpose. 

[Preached  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadelphia,  September  4,  1761,  being  the  day 
appointed  for  the  first  opening  and  dedication  of  the  said  church;  with  an  account  of 
the  service  used  on  that  occasion.] 

1  Kings  viii.  13,  27,  57,  60. — I  have  surely  built  thee  an  house  to  dwell  in,  a  settled 
place  for  thee  to  abide  in  for  ever.  But  will  God  indeed  dwell  on  the  earth?  Behold 
the  heaven  and  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  thee  ;  how  much  less  this  house  that  I 
have  builded  !  The  Lord  our  God  be  with  us,  as  he  was  with  our  fathers ;  let  him  not 
leave  us  nor  forsake  us ;  that  all  the  people  of  the  earth  may  know  that  the  Lord  is 
God,  and  that  there  is  none  else. 

Sermon  LXXIX.  Of  Love  and  Unity.     Being  a  Farewell  Sermon. 

[Preached  at  All  Saints  Church,  Philadelphia  county,  on  occasion  of  the  shutting 
up  the  churches  in  the  Oxford  Mission,  on  the  approach  of  the  British  army  towards 
the  city  of  Philadelphia.] 

2  Cor.  xiii.  11. — Finally,  brethren,  farewell.  Be  perfect,  be  of  good  comfort,  be  of 
one  mind,  live  in  peace;   and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you. 


44°  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [iSoO 

Sermon  LXXX.   Of  Joy  Succeeding  to  Sorrow. 

[Preached  in  July,  1 778,  in  the  three  churches  of  the  Oxford  Mission,  on  the  open- 
ing of  the  said  churches  after  the  evacuation  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  by  the  British 
army.] 

Psalm  cxxvi.  3,  4,  5. — The  Lord  hath  done  great  things  for  us  whereof  we  are  glad. 
Turn  again  our  captivity,  O  Lord,  as  the  streams  in  the  south.  They  that  sow  in  tears 
shall  reap  in  joy.  He  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall 
doubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him. 

THREE    SERMONS    AT    THE    CELEBRATION    OF    THE    BLESSED    SACRAMENT    OF 
THE    LORD'S    SUPPER. 

Sermon  LXXXI.    1.  On  Self-examination. 

I  Cor.  xi.  28. — But  let  a  man  examine  himself,  and  so  let  him  eat  of  that  bread,  and 
drink  of  that  cup. 

Sermon  LXXXII.    2.  The  Promise  of  Eternal  Life  to  Worthy  Partakers 
of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

John  vi.  54. — Whoso  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood,  hath  eternal  life;  and 
I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day. 

Sermon  LXXXIII.   3  and  4.  An  Exhortation  to  Frequent  Communion, 
with  an  Answer  to  all  Excuses,  etc. 

Luke  xiv.  16,  etc. — A  certain  man  made  a  great  supper,  and  bade  many,  and  sent 
his  servant  at  supper  time  to  say  to  them  that  were  bidden,  Ccme,  for  all  things  are 
now  ready.    And  they  all  with  one  consent  began  to  make  excuse.    The  first  said,  etc. 

Sermon  LXXXIV.   Of  the  Progress  of  our  Time,  and  the  Instability  of 
Life. 

[A  New  Year's  sermon,  first  preached  January  1,  1781.] 

James  iv.  13—15. — Go  to  now,  ye  that  say,  To-day  or  to-morrow  we  will  go  into  such 
a  city,  and  continue  there  a  year,  and  buy  and  sell  and  get  gain  ;  whereas  ye  know 
not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow.  For  what  is  your  life?  It  is  even  a  vapour  that 
appeareth  for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth  away.  For  that  you  ought  to  say,  If  the 
Lord  will,  we  shall  live  to  do  this  or  that. 

Jer.  xxviii.  16. — This  year  thou  shalt  die;  because  thou  hast  taught  rebellion  against 
the  Lord. 

FUNERAL    SERMONS. 

Sermon   LXXXV.    Personal  Affliction  and   Frequent   Reflection  upon 
Human  Life,  of  great  Use  to  lead  Man  to  the  Remembrance  of  God. 
[Preached   in   Christ   Church,  Philadelphia,  September   I,  1754,  on  the  death  of  a 
beloved  pupil.] 

Psalm  xlii.  6. — O  my  God!  my  soul  is  cast  down  within  me,  therefore  will  I  re- 
member thee. 

Sermon  LXXXVI.   The  Steward's  Summons. 

[Preached  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  January  10,  1762,  at  the  funeral  of  the 
Rev.  Robert  Jenney,  LL.  D.,  Rector  of  that  church.] 

Luke  xvi.  2. — Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship;  for  thou  mayest  be  no  longer 
steward. 


ISOO]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  44 1 

Sermon  LXXXVII.  The  Peaceful  End  of  the  Righteous. 

[Preached  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  September  6,  1772,  at  the  funeral  of 
Thomas  Grseme,  Esq.,  M.  D.] 

Gen.  xv.  15. — And  thou  shalt  go  to  thy  fathers  in  peace;  thou  shalt  be  buried  in  a 
good  old  age. 

Sermon  LXXXVIII.   Old  Age  a  Crown  of  Glory  to  the  Righteous. 

Prov.  xvi.  31. — The  hoary  head  is  a  crown  of  glory,  if  it  be  found  in  the  way 
of  righteousness. 

Sermon  LXXXIX.  Longing  after  Immortality. 

[As  it  was  preached  before  the  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  on  Tuesday,  August  4,  1789,  at  the  funeral  of  the  Rev.  David  Griffith,  D.  D., 
a  member  of  convention  for  the  church  in  Virginia,  and  formerly  a  bishop  elect  in 
that  church.]  * 

2  Cor.  v.  1,  2. — For  we  know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dis- 
solved, we  have  a  building  of  God,  an  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
heavens  For  in  this  we  groan  earnestly,  desiring  to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house 
which  is  from  heaven. 

Sermon  XC.   The  Improvement  of  Time. 

[Preached  on  sundry  funeral  occasions.] 

1  Cor.  vii.  29-31. — But  this  1  say,  brethren,  The  time  is  short.  It  remaineth  that 
both  they  that  have  wives,  be  as  though  they  had  none ;  and  they  that  weep,  as  though 
they  weeped  not;  and  they  that  rejoice,  as  though  they  rejoiced  not;  and  they  that 
buy,  as  though  they  possessed  not;  and  they  that  use  this  world,  as  not  abusing  it:  for 
the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away. 

Sermon  XCI.   Mourning  better  than  Mirth. 

[Preached  on  sundry  funeral  occasions.] 
Eccl.  vii.  2. — It  is  better  to  go  to  the  house  of  mourning  than  to  go  to  the  house  of 
feasting,  for  that  is  the  end  of  all  men,  and  the  living  will  lay  it  to  his  heart. 

Sermon  XCII.   The  Immortal  Fruits  of  Affliction. 
[Preached  at  the  funeral  of  Colonel  William  Bordley,   M.  D.,  of  Kent  county,  Md. 

2  Cor.  iv.  17. — For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a 
far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory. 

Sermon  XCIII.  The  Christian's  Warfare  and  Crown. 

[Preached  in  Chester  Church,  Maryland,  February  9,  17S1,  at  the  funeral  of  Mrs. 
Rachael  Coudon,  wife  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Coudon,  A.  M.] 

2  Tim.  iv.  6-8. — The  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought  a  good  fight, 
I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day; 
and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto  all  them  also  that  love  his  appearing. 

END    OF    THE    FUNERAL    SERMONS. 

*This  sermon,  as  it  was  at  first  composed,  was  preached  January  23,  1782,  at  the 
funeral  of  the  Rev.  Hugh  Neill,  A.  M.,  Rector  of  Chester  Parish,  Queen  Anne's  county, 
Maryland. 


442  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [180O 

Sermon  XCIV.  Of  the  Trembling  of  Felix,  and  the  Witness  of 
Conscience. 

Acts  xxiv.  25. — And  as  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance  and  judgment  to 
come,  Felix  trembled,  and  answered,  Go  thy  way  for  this  time,  when  I  have  more 
convenient  season  I  will  call  for  thee. 

Sermon  XCV.  The  Certainty  of  the  last  Judgment,  and  of  a  Future 
State  of  Rewards  and  Punishments. 

2  Cor.  v.  io,  II. — We  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  that  every 
one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether 
it  be  good  or  bad.      Knowing  therefore  the  terror  of  the  Lord,  we  persuade  men. 

Sermon  XCVI.  Of  <the  Manner  of  Christ's  Coming  to  Judgment,  and 
the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead. 

1  Thess.  iv.  16,  17. — For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout, 
with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  of  God,  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall 
rise  first :  then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them 
in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air;  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord. 

Sermon  XCVII.  Of  the  Dissolution  of  the  World  by  Fire  at  the  Last 
Day;  with  an  earnest  Exhortation  to  Holiness  of  Life,  and  Prepara- 
tion for  Death  and  Judgment. 

2  Pet.  iii.  10,  11. — The  day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  in  the 
which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt 
with  fervent  heat,  the  earth  also  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burnt  up. 

Seeing  then  that  all  these  things  shall  be  dissolved,  what  manner  of  persons  ought 
ye  to  be  in  all  holy  conversation  and  godliness;  looking  for  and  hasting  unto  the 
coming  of  the  day  of  the  Lord. 

Sermon  XCVIII.  Of  an  Eternal  World,  and  the  different  State  of  the 
Righteous  and  the  Ungodly  after  Judgment. 

Matt.  xxv.  46. — And  these  shall  go  away  unto  everlasting  punishment,  but  the 
righteous  unto  life  eternal. 

END    OF    THE    PAROCHIAL    SERMONS. 

Some  of  thjse  sermons  have  been  published.  Many  have  not 
been.  Where  those  unpublished  now  are  I  am  wholly  unable  to 
discover;  indeed  cannot  so  much  as  conjecture.  I  sincerely  grieve 
that  they  cannot  be  collected  and  preserved.  In  such  institutions 
as  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania  we  have  now  a  place 
where  any  manuscripts  of  value  are  arranged,  indexed,  bound,  and 
carefully  preserved  in  fire-proof  repositories.  I  earnestly  appeal 
to  my  numerous  kinsfolk,  if  among  any  of  them  these  precious 
documents  yet  remain,  to  collect  and  deposit  them  in  that  or  in  some 
other  like  institution,  if  any  there  be,  where  they  will  be  of  some 
benefit  to  mankind.  In  private  hands,  even  the  best  hands,  they 
are  of  little  or  none. 


l802]  REV.   WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  443 

But  Dr.  Smith  contemplated,  in  case  of  his  life  being  prolonged, 
the  publication  of  other  volumes  than  these  six  of  which  I  have 
just  written.  These  additional  volumes  were  to  contain  his  aca- 
demical writings,  together  with  many  other  matters,  consisting  of 
fugitive  and  occasional  pieces;  some  of  which  had  been  printed  in 
separate  pamphlets,  some  in  newspapers,  magazines,  and  other 
periodical  publications,  and  many  yet  in  manuscript.  Among  these 
productions  were  to  be  found : 

1.  Addresses,  Letters,  etc.,  etc.,  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  during  two  years  and  a  half,  while  employed,  under 
the  authority  of  Royal  Brief,  in  the  great  collection,  for  the  better 
establishment  and  support  of  the  colleges  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia. 

2.  Philosophical,  Astronomical  and  Geographical  papers,  to  be 
found  chiefly  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society;  together  with  the  Rules,  Charter  and 
Laws  for  its  first  institution,  and  an  oration  before  the  society. 

3.  An  account  of  Thomas  Godfrey,  of  Philadelphia,  with  full 
proofs  of  his  being  the  original  inventor  of  what  has  been  unjustly 
called  Hadley's  Quadrant. 

4.  Polemical  writings,  viz.:  Cato's  Letters,  containing  some  re- 
marks on  Paine's  "  Common  Sense."  The  Anatomist,  in  nineteen 
numbers;  contained  in  the  second  volume  of  "A  Collection  of 
Tracts,  on  the  subject  of  the  residence  of  Protestant  Bishops  in  the 
American  Colonies,  and  in  answer  to  the  writers  who  opposed  it ;  " 
published  in  1769,  at  New  York,  by  John  Holt.  Theological 
Lectures,  delivered  to  the  divinity  students  in  the  College  of  Phil- 
adelphia; Correspondence  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in 
the  case  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Macclenachan;  Letter  to  the  nineteen 
Presbyterian  ministers  who  advocated  his  cause. 

Political  writings,  viz.:  Brief  State  and  Brief  View  of  the  Politics 
of  the  Legislatures  of  Pennsylvania,  in  1755-56,  near  and  about 
the  time  of  Braddock's  defeat.  Preface  to  a  speech  by  J.  Dickin- 
son, Esq.,  in  answer  to  Dr.  Franklin's  protest  in  the  House  of  As- 
sembly of  Pennsylvania,  with  sundry  other  political  papers,  in  a 
contest  with  that  House,  which  will  be  noticed  below. 

5.  Miscellaneous  papers,  viz.:  The  Rise,  Progress  and  State  of 
the  Canal  Navigation  of  Pennsylvania ;  sundry  papers,  addresses, 
etc.,  to  be  found  among  the  proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Pro- 


444  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [l802 

moting  Roads  and  Inland  Navigation  in  the  Middle  States.  Ex- 
amination of  the  Connecticut  claim  to  lands  within  the  charter 
bounds  of  Pennsylvania,  with  a  large  Appendix,  containing  copies 
of  charters,  royal  grants  and  other  valuable  documents ;  a  collec- 
tion of  papers,  drawn  up  at  the  request  of  Judge  Sullivan,  and 
transmitted  to  him  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  Timothy  Pickering, 
Esq.,  for  discovering  and  ascertaining  the  true  river  St.  Croix. 

An  account  of  General  Bouquet's  expedition  to  Muskingum, 
with  many  papers  relating  to  the  Illinois,  and  the  ancient  boun- 
daries between  the  English  and  French  tribes. 

To  the  above  were  to  be  added  Dr.  Smith's  large  share  (which 
would  be  distinguished  as  far  as  possible  from  the  share  of  his 
coadjutors)  of  tracts  published  in  Colonel  Bradford's  American 
Magazine  of  1757-58,  as  follows: 

6.  The  Planter,  in  twenty-two  numbers. 

7.  The  Antigallican,  in  seven  numbers. 

8.  The  Watchman,  in  eight  numbers.* 

9.  An  account  of  the  very  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  Assem- 
blies, or  Legislatures,  of  Pennsylvania,  of  which  we  have  men- 
tioned in  our  Vol.  I.,f  which  obliged  Dr.  Smith  to  undertake  a 
voyage  to  Great  Britain,  and  which  would  contain  many  interest- 
ing papers,  supported  by  the  authority  of  some  of  the  greatest 
characters  that  ever  adorned  the  bar  or  the  bench  in  the  law 
courts  of  England,  namely:  Pratt  and  Yorke,  then  Attorney  and 
Solicitor  General,  both  of  them  afterwards  Lord  High  Chancellors 
of  the  nation. % 

The  publication  was  begun  in  an  elegant  way  by  Mr.  Maxwell, 
a  well-known  publisher  of  Philadelphia  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  of  whom  Dr.  Smith  says,  in  a  prefatory  note  dated  Falls 
of  Schuylkill,  August  2,  1802: 

I  have  conveyed  the  copyright  on  easy  terms,  induced  thereto  on  my 
part  by  his  attention  to  the  correctness  of  his  press,  amidst  the  large 
numbers  of  hands  which  he  is  obliged  to  employ,  as  well  as  by  his  at- 
tention to  myself,  in  attending  me  at  my  house  in  the  country;   to  aid 

*  The  "Hermit,"  which  was  first  published  in  this  American  Magazine,  is  printed 
in  the  concluding  part  of  the  first  volume  of  Dr.  Smith's  Works,  published  by 
Maxwell,  in  1803. 

f  Pages  167-187;   203-209. 

%  By  the  names  of  Lord  Camden  and  Lord  Morden. 


1802]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  445 

my  foiling  sight,  in  reading  and  correcting  the  proof  sheets,  especially 
those  taken  from  the  manuscript  copies. 

He  has  taken  the  risk  of  the  publication  upon  himself,  and  I  hope 
those  friends  who  yet  remain  alive,  who  formerly  lent  their  names  to 
encourage  the  work  (many  of  them  being,  alas!  now  no  more),  were 
influenced  by  other  motives  than  the  expectation  of  seeing  their  names 
prefixed  to  a  book,  in  a  subscription  list;  and  that  whatever  favor  they 
intended  towards  me  may  be  transferred  to  my  publisher,  who,  being 
worthy  of  success,  I  pray  he  may  be  blest  with  it  in  every  liberal  and 
just  undertaking. 

I  have  given  in  an  Appendix*  a  list  of  such  things  of  Dr. 
Smith  as  I  either  know  or  suppose  to  be  his,  which  were  pub- 
lished in  his  lifetime,  from  the  year  1750  to  the  year  1803. 

In  September  of  this  year  Mrs.  Williamina  Cadwalader,  writing 
from  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill  to  her  aunt,  Mrs.  Ridgely,  of  Dover, 
says: 

Dr.  Smith  is  near  his  end.  On  last  Sunday  he  preached  for  St. 
John's  Parish,  in  the  city.  I  was  with  him,  as  he  would  have  me,  being 
afraid  to  go  with  his  servant  alone.  I  do  not  think  he  will  ever  preach 
again,  at  least  not  with  my  consent. 

This,  I  have  reason  to  think,  was  the  last  sermon  which  Dr. 
Smith  ever  preached.  The  church  now  called  St.  John's  Church, 
Northern  Liberties,  was  not  admitted  into  the  convention  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Pennsylvania  until  1 8 16,  nor  or- 
ganized in  form  until  18 1 5,  when  the  Rev.  George  Boyd,  D.  D., 
was  its  rector.  But  the  parish  had  a  history  much  earlier  than  this; 
so  far  back  as  June,  1772,  Dr.  Smith  interesting  himself  in  origi- 
nating the  identical  parish  which  forty-three  years  afterwards  took 
corporate  shape.t 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  X. 

-j-  This  fact  is  made  patent  by  a  document  in  Mr.  Robert  Coulton  Davis's  possession. 
It  is  a  receipt,  dated  January  20,  1787,  by  "J.  Booth,"  who  promises  to  return  it  to  Dr. 
Smith  "at  the  town  of  New  Castle,"  for  a  document  described  as  in  these  words  : 

June  nth. 
Whereas  a  certain  lottery,  called  the  Wilmington  Lottery,  in  two  classes,  is  set  on 
foot  for  raising  ^2,484  Pennsylvania  money,  in  which  Richard  McWilliam,  Esq.,  and 
Messrs.  Tonas  Stedham,  George  Evans  and  Joseph  Stedham,  of  New  Castle  county, 
are  managers,  who,  it  is  declared  in  the  scheme  of  the  said  lottery,  that  the  money  to 
be  raised  thereby  is  to  be  divided  as  follows,  viz. :  Five-sixths  of  the  net  profits  to~vards 
the  building  and  finishing  St.  John's  Church,  in  the  Northern  Liberties  of  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  and  the  remaining  sixth  part  for  public  uses  within  the  county  of  New 
Castle,  under  the  direction  of  the  said  managers,  and  of  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Peters,  Rev. 


446  LIFE  AND   CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [^03 


CHAPTER   LXI. 

Dr.  Smith's  last  illness  one  of  some  length — Reads  the  proof-sheets  of 
Maxwell's  two  volumes,  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  in  April,  1803 
— He  is  brought  to  his  son's,  William  Moore  Smith's,  house,  in  town — 
Dies  there  May  14,  1803 — Is  buried  in  his  Mausoleum  at  the  Falls — 
His  last  official  act — Mrs.  Cadwalader  to  Mrs.  Ridgely — Account  of 
his  funeral — Bills  paid  by  his  Executors — Dr.  Smith's  estate. 

The  commencement  of  the  year  1803  found  Dr.  Smith  in  a 
dying  condition.  The  death  of  his  sister  and  of  his  man  Primus 
had  left  him  much  dependent  upon  those  whom  in  some  senses 
were  strangers — strangers  at  least  in  comparison  with  those  who 
had  been  long  about  him  and  were  acquainted  with  all  his  habits 
and  wants.  His  sons  were  affectionate;  but  one  of  them,  William 
Moore  Smith,  was  about  to  embark  for  England,  as  agent  for  the 
British  claimants  in  America,  and  to  take  with  him  his  own  son, 
William  Rudulph  Smith,  who  up  to  that  time  had  been  constantly 
with  his  grandfather,  and  had  been  of  great  assistance  to  him  in 
the  arrangement  of  his  papers.  Charles  Smith  was  living  in  the 
city  of  Lancaster,  and  engaged  in  public  duties,  and  Richard  was 
in  Huntingdon,  a  town  then  at  a  great  distance,  as  respected  any 
ability  to  get  to  him  readily,  from  Philadelphia.  The  only  rela- 
tives he  had  near  him  (in  the  city)  were  his  daughter-in-law  (Mrs. 
Ann  Smith),  Mrs.  Williamina  Cadwalader,  and  his  half-brother, 
Judge  Thomas  Smith.  These,  with  Bishop  White  and  Benjamin 
R.  Morgan,  Esq.,  were   constantly  by  his  side,  and  Judge  Smith, 

Dr.  William  Smith  and  Rev.  Mr.  Jacob  Duche,  of  Phifadelphia,  and  Rev.  Mr. 
Laurence  Gerelius,  of  Wilmington  ;  now,  that  there  may  be  no  future  misunderstand- 
ing relative  to  the  disposition  of  trie  said  sixth  part,  which,  if  the  lottery  is  successful, 
may  clear  about  ^400,  it  is  agreed  that  £70  of  the  same  be  applied  by  us  towards  the 
use  of  Trinity  Church,  in  the  borough  of  Wilmington,  and  the  remainder  towards  the 
public  school  now  erecting  in  the  borough  of  Wilmington,  or  in  that  proportion  if  the 
said  sixth  part  should  prove  more  or  less  than  as  above  estimated. 
Witness  our  hands  this  nth  day  of  June,  1772. 

Richard  Peters,  Richard  McWilliam, 

William  Smith,  Jonas  Stedham, 

Laurence  Gerelius,  George  Evans, 

J.  Stedham. 


I803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  447 

the  Bishop  and  Mr.  Morgan  made  such  an  arrangement  that  one 
of  them  was  with  him  every  night.  My  grandmother  (to  whom  I 
am  indebted  for  these  facts)  drove  to  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill  every 
morning,  leaving  her  little  children  to  the  care  of  her  servants,  at 
her  home,  then  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Fifth  and  Chestnut 
streets,  in  the  city.  Maxwell,  the  publisher,  sent  proofs  of  the 
two  volumes  of  his  sermons  daily  to  him,  and  these  were  cor- 
rected by  himself,  though  the  books  were  not  so  entirely  com- 
pleted as  that  they  could  be  published  in  Dr.  Smith's  lifetime. 
In  the  earlier  part  of  the  year  we  find  him  writing  to  the  painter, 
Gilbert  Stuart,  a  letter  too  characteristic  and  interesting  to  be 
omitted  in  our  memoir: 

Falls  of  Schuylkill,  February  28,  1803. 

My  Dear  Sir:  By  Dr.  Rush's  order  I  am  now  wholly  confined  to 
my  bed-chamber ;  the  doctor,  my  brother  and  my  friends  who  have  any 
regard  for  me  or  business  with  me,  visit  me  here.  I  grow  every  day 
weaker;  but,  thank  God,  he  keeps  my  mind  sound  and  my  intellect  not 
much  impaired.  I  beg  the  pleasure  and  comfort  of  a  short  visit  from 
you  in  a  day  or  two.  My  son,  in  two  or  three  weeks,  will  embark  for 
England.  I  shall  never  see  him  again,  as  I  believe.  He  has  consented 
to  sit  to  you  for  his  picture  before  he  goes.  I  shall  pay  you  cash  down 
as  we  may  agree.     An  answerer  bearer  is  requested  by 

Your  affectionate  Wm.  Smith. 

To  Mr.  Gilbert  Stuart. 

In  the  month  of  April  Mrs.  Ann  Smith,  assisted  by  Bishop  White 
and  Mr.  Morgan,  brought  the  venerable  sufferer  from  the  Falls 
of  Schuylkill  in  a  carriage,  followed  by  a  wagon  containing  his 
"chest  and  red  trunk  "  of  papers,  to  her  house,  already  mentioned, 
at  the  southeast  corner  of  Fifth  and  Chestnut  streets,  Philadelphia, 
where  he  died,  Ma}'  14,  1803,  at  midnight,  in  the  second  story 
front  room;  the  same  in  which  my  father  (Richard  Penn  Smith) 
was  born,  and  in  which  Washington  had  sat  to  Gilbert  Stuart  for 
the  portrait  now  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  Bishop  White  called 
in  the  morning,  and,  in  pursuance  of  a  request  which  before  death 
had  been  made  by  his  departed  brother,  took  away  the  "  red 
trunk,"  containing  the  church  papers,  of  which  I  have  spoken.* 

The  following  is  the  last  letter  I  have  ever  found  of  Dr. 
Smith : 

*  For  account  of  these  papers  see  Appendix,  No.  XI. 


448  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1803 

Dr.  Smith  to  Charles  Smith. 

Philadelphia,  May  2,  1803. 
Dear  Charles  :  I  write  you  this  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
letter  and  check.  ...  I  get  weaker  every  day,  and  am  wholly  confined 
to  my  bedchamber,  and  cannot  reasonably  expect  more  than  a  very  un- 
certain and  short  time  to  live,  and  would  not  wish  to  give  you  a 
moment's  unhappiness.  .  .  .  My  two  volumes  of  sermons,  etc.,  are  fin- 
ished, and  printed,  but  I  feel  I  could  not  rest  in  my  grave  were  my 
wishes  not  carried  out.  But  to  you,  my  dear  son,  and  your  brother 
William,  I  trust  this  matter,  which  is  of  so  much  import  to  me.  .  .  . 
Your  wife  and  dear  children,  whom  I  never  expect  to  see  again,  I  love; 
I  leave  my  blessing  upon  them. 

Your  affectionate  father  till  death, 

William  Smith. 
To  Charles  Smith,  Lancaster. 

The  only  accounts  I  have  of  the  funeral  of  Dr.  Smith  are  from 
my  grandmother  and  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Cadwalader.  My  grand- 
mother informed  me  that  Bishop  White  officiated  at  the  mauso- 
leum ;  that  she  and  my  father  and  uncle  (Dr.  Smith's  two  grand- 
children*) were  the  only  members  of  the  family  who  followed  the 
body  to  the  vault.  His  children  were  all  too  far  away  to  commu- 
nicate to  them  the  fact  of  his  dissolution  in  time  for  them  to  be 
present  at  the  funeral.  Mrs.  Cadwalader,  widow  of  General  John 
Cadwalader,  was  at  this  time  residing  on  the  estate  at  the  Falls, 
near  Dr.  Smith's  dwelling. 

Mrs.  Williamina  Cadwalader  to  Mrs.  Ridgely. 

[Extract.] 

Philadelphia,  May  19,  1803. 

I  suppose  Willey  will  tell  you  that  Dr.  Smith  died  on  Saturday  last, 
and  was  buried  on  Tuesday  evening  in  his  mausoleum,  at  the  Falls. 
He  was  carried  in  a  hearse  from  his  son  William's  house,  attended  by 
sixteen  carriages,  six  of  them  filled  with  clergy.  He  had  none  of  his 
children  with  him,  but  was  attended  affectionately  by  his  amiable 
daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  William  Moore  Smith. 

From  your  very  affectionate 

Williamina  Cadwalader. 

*  The  last  official  act  of  Dr.  Smith  in  his  position  as  a  clergyman  he  make.s  note 
of  thus : 

"August  1,  1802. — Baptized  my  two  grandchildren,  viz.: 

"  1.  Samuel,  who  will  be  six  years  of  age  1st  September  next. 

"  2.   Richard,  who  was  three  years  of  age  13th  March  last." 


1803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  449 

In  the  office  of  the  Register  of  Wills,  in  Philadelphia,  I  find  the 
following  list  of  bills  paid  by  the  executors  : 

Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  medical  attendance,  #334-34 

James  Traquair,  inscription,  etc.,  for  vault,  60.94 

David  Edwin,  for  engraving  portrait,  45-oo 

Robert  Haydock,  stone  work  for  vault,  120.00 

Dr.  Physick,  medical  attendance,  32.00 

Dr.  Bensell,  medical  attendance,  12.50 

Subscription  to  road  in  Huntingdon  for  1803,  10.00 

Funeral  expenses,  199. 14 

For  mourning  rings,  as  per  will,  280.00 

The  mausoleum  erected  by  Dr.  Smith  was  used  by  some  mem- 
bers of  the  family  as  a  place  of  sepulture  until  the  death  of  my 
father,  Richard  Penn  Smith,  in  the  year  1 854.  This  gentleman  being 
aware  that  at  no  distant  day  his  estate  would  be  sold  for  the  purpose 
of  division,  directed  that  a  lot  should  be  purchased  in  the  cemetery 
of  Laurel  Hill,  which  is  in  sight  of  the  old  homestead,  and  that  the 
bodies,  now  about  fourteen  in  number,  should  be  removed  to  that 
place.  This  was  supposed  to  have  been  done  with  all  the  bodies, 
including  that  of  Dr.  Smith;  but  from  the  fact  of  their  having 
been  buried  in  the  vault,  those  of  Dr.  Smith  were  not  discovered, 
and  so  were  not  removed.  They  were  subsequently  disinterred 
by  me,  and  it  is  my  intention  to  reinter  them  in  the  grounds 
either  of  Christ  Church,  where  he  so  often  preached,  or  in  those 
of  St.  Peter's,  which  he  dedicated. 

Dr.  Smith  left  a  large  landed  property.  It  was  in  different  parts 
of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  the  largest  part  perhaps  being  in 
Huntingdon  county,  Pa.  He  had  made  during  his  lifetime  a 
careful  division  among  his  children,  who  all  received  a  fair  estate, 
indeed  I  may  say  a  large  one.  His  property  at  the  Falls  of 
Schuylkill  fell  to  the  portion  of  my  grandfather,  William  Moore 
Smith,  and  was  in  turn  inherited  by  his  son,  Richard  Penn  Smith. 
From  him  I  received  a  portion  of  the  same  property,  which  will 
in  time  be  the  portion  of  my  son  and  my  grandchildren. 

29 


450  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF    THE  [1803 


CHAPTER   LXII. 

Causes  of  Dr.  Smith  not  being  consecrated  Bishop  of  Maryland — Conclusion. 

We  have  said,  in  earlier  parts  of  this  volume,  that  in  August, 
1783,  Dr.  Smith  was  elected  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Convention  of 
Maryland — a  body  composed  of  the  whole  clergy  of  the  State — to 
be  Bishop  of  their  diocese.  The  body  recommended  him  as  "a 
fit  person  and  every  way  qualified  to  be  invested  with  the  sacred 
office  of  a  bishop;"  the  convention  declaring  itself  " perfectly  sat- 
isfied that  he  will  duly  execute  this  office  ...  to  the  edifying  of  the 
church  and  the  glory  of  God."  We  have  also  stated  that  in  1786 
the  wardens  and  vestry  of  the  parish  in  which  he  ministered  for  years 
added  to  this,  their  emphatic  testimony  to  the  correctness  of  his 
life  and  conversation.*  With  all  this  we  know,  however,  that  Dr. 
Smith  was  never  consecrated  to  the  Episcopal  order.  I  am  not 
able  to  say  with  certainty  why  this  happened.  While  I  think  it 
certain  that  Dr.  Smith  would  have  made  an  imposing  figure  had 
his  robe  been  sleeved  with  lawn;  and  indeed  would  have  been  in 
many  ways  an  efficient  bishop,  there  were  certain  reasons  which  I 
can  conceive  of  as  having  been  sufficient  to  cause  some  opposi- 
tion to  his  consecration. 

We  know  what  transcendent  qualifications  are  required  by  the 
apostle  of  him  who  is  to  be  ordained  to  this  most  sacred  office. 
With  other  qualifications  he  must  be  blameless,  vigilant,  sober, 
not  given  to  wine,  patient,  apt  to  teach,  not  only  of  good  behavior, 
but  having  a  good  report  of  them  which  are  without.  The  apostle 
plainly  intimates,  I  think,  that  a  man  may  be  of  good  behavior ; 
but,  from  the  misrepresentations,  including  even  those  that  are 
slanderous,  or  from  simple  misapprehensions  of  others,  may  not 
have  a  good  report  of  them  that  are  without.  Such  a  man,  how- 
ever innocent — indeed,  however  holy — and  though  the  report  of 
them  that  are  without  may  be  the  result  of  wicked  falsehoods  and 

*  See  these  two  documents  supra,  pp.  ioo,  240. 


]803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  45  I 

malignant  persecutions,  the  apostle  declares  to  us  should  not  be 
made  bishop.  And  the  reason  of  the  apostle's  view  is  obvious. 
The  work  of  evangelizing  the  world  is  a  work  to  be  done  among 
the  ignorant,  the  prejudiced,  the  obstinate,  the  wilful,  the  slander- 
ous, the  wicked  and  profligate  of  every  sort,  and  among  them  only 
or  chiefly.  It  is  a  practical  work.  However  blameless,  vigilant, 
sober,  patient,  and  of  whatever  good  behavior,  the  apostle's  injunc- 
tion would  forbid  us  to  appoint  a  man  to  this  office  who  would  be 
politically  obnoxious  to  any  in  his  diocese,  however  much  more 
marked  by  obedience  to  the  Scripture  his  political  conduct  might 
have  been  than  theirs ;  or  to  appoint  one  who,  however  fit  by  all 
other  qualities,  by  weight  of  years  could  not  possibly  be  longer 
"apt  to  teach." 

In  Dr.  Smith's  case  his  years  alone  were  such  as  were  likely  to 
make  him  soon  unfit  for  "the  office  of  a  bishop."  In  1789,  only 
three  years  after  the  earliest  date  at  which  he  could  have  been 
consecrated,  he  resigned,  "on  account  of  his  advanced  age,"  the 
presidency  of  a  society  created  largely  by  himself,  in  which  for 
thirty  years  he  had  been  the  most  active,  intelligent  and  efficient 
administrator,  and  of  which  the  duties  in  1789  had  ceased  to  be 
laborious.*  Moreover,  there  was  no  salary  attached  to  the  Epis- 
copate of  Maryland.  Dr.  Smith  was  too  old  to  find  one  in  the 
rectorship  of  a  parochial  church.  His  productive  property  was 
small.  The  means  of  sustaining  life  were  therefore  wanting  to 
him  in  the  good  work  of  a  bishop's  office. 

2.  Without  doubt  Dr.  Smith  had  not  favored  a  Revolution  which 
involved  the  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the  mother  country. 
He  had  both  written  and  spoken  against  our  declaring  ourselves 
independent ;  and,  in  common  with  not  a  few  of  the  most  upright 
and  honorable  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  respected  then  and 
venerated  now,  including;  names  like  those  of  the  Willings, 
the  Tilghmans,  the  Chews,  was  looked  upon  with  some  dis- 
favor during  much  of  the  whole  war.  The  Church  of  England 
had  been  so  long  and  so  intimately  associated  in  popular  estima- 
tion with  the  Crown  and  the  British  army — which,  in  September, 
1777,  had  landed  on  or  near  the  soil   of  Maryland,  had,  by  its 


*  The  Corporation  for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Children  of  Clergymen.     See 
Wallace's  Century  of  Beneficence — 1769-1S79. 


452  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1803 

violence  and  robberies  on  its  way  to  Philadelphia,  left  such  horrid 
impressions  even  in  Maryland,  the  adjoining  State  to  Pennsyl- 
vania— that  it  would  not  have  been  wise  to  consecrate  for  the 
Bishop  of  Maryland  any  man  who  had  not  been  notoriously  in 
sympathy  with  the  popular  cause.  Bishop  Provoost  had  hardly 
any  other  special  title  to  being  selected  for  New  York  but  that  he 
had  been  a  warm  Whig,  and  had  borne  arms  against  the  British 
invaders:  and  the  influence  even  of  the  admirable  Bishop  White 
was  without  doubt  much  increased  in  a  republican  community  by 
the  fact  that  he  had  been  a  chaplain  in  the  Congress  of  1776,  and 
from  the  first  a  friend  of  Washington  and  a  supporter  of  the 
American  cause. 

3.  A  bishop,  it  is  declared,  must  be  "no  striker."  My  ancestor, 
some  persons  thought,  did  not  satisfy  this  requisition.  He  never 
threw  the  first  stone.  But  if  any  one  threw  a  first  stone  at  him, 
he  did  not  always  stop  with  a  second  stone  in  return.  He  arrested 
the  throwing  of  stones  from  the  enemy's  quarter  by  throwing  them 
from  his  own  side  with  such  rapidity,  force  and  well-directed  aim, 
that  he  who  began  the  quarrel  was  soon  obliged  to  retreat  pre- 
cipitately from  the  field.  Thus  he  dealt  with  the  Quaker  Assembly 
of  Pennsylvania,  long  bearing  and  long  forbearing;  but  when  pro- 
voked past  measure,  bearding  them  in  their  den,  dragging  them 
across  the  ocean  before  the  king  in  council,  reversing  all  their 
decrees,  and  then  compelling  them  to  assemble  in  their  own  juris- 
diction and  hear,  in  the  presence  of  their  constituents,  the  royal 
record  of  their  humiliation.*  He  acted  in  short,  much  like  a  man 
who,  having  been  bitten  by  some  snarling  whelp,  takes  him  with 
one  hand  by  the  back  of  the  neck,  and,  holding  his  head  in  the 
air,  with  a  whip  in  the  other,  lashes  him  till  the  animal's  sides  are 
so  corrugated  with  welts  that  he  never  can  be  found  again  to 
offend  anybody.  This  was  acting,  no  doubt,  much  in  accord  with 
that  good  council  which,  while  advising  that  a  man  "beware  of 
entrance  in  a  quarrel,"  yet  adds: 

"  But  being  in, 
Bear  it  that  the  opposer  may  beware  of  thee," 

though  not  acting  with  that  better  teaching  which  tells  us  that 
when   smitten  on  one   cheek  we   should   turn   the  other  for  the 

*  See  Vol.  I.,  pp.  208,  209. 


1803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.   D.  453 

same  operation  upon  it.  Dr.  Smith's  conduct,  in  short,  was  very 
like  that  of  a  man;  not  quite  so  much  like  that  of  a  clergyman. 

He  had  been,  in  fact,  from  his  first  advent  into  Pennsylvania,  in 
all  the  political  controversies  which  agitated  the  Province.  His 
wit  was  terribly  keen,  and  left  deep  wounds  even  when  upon  the 
surface  there  seemed  to  be  smoothness.  Such  a  man  might  have 
attained  a  high  degree  of  grace,  but  there  was  still  too  large  a 
share  of  nature  left  behind  in  him.  This  militant  spirit  became 
more  and  more  subject  to  the  law  of  the  Gospel,  with  his  advancing 
life;  and  in  the  end  the  spirit  of  Christ,  we  would  humbly  hope — 
indeed,  we  feel  well  assured — quite  constrained  him.  But  in  the 
decline  of  life  his  physical  strength  rendered  him  incapable  of  any 
active  work. 

We  ought  to  add,  in  this  connection,  that  there  was  never  any 
root  of  bitterness  in  Dr.  Smith's  temper.  His  anger  was  not  a 
sinful  anger.  The  sun  went  not  down  upon  it.  This  was  illus- 
trated in  regard  to  the  very  Quakers  of  whom  we  have  been 
speaking.  They  had  acted  toward  him  in  1757  with  a  dicta- 
torial, unjust  and  persecuting  spirit,  and  had  greatly  injured  the 
interests  of  the  Province,  and  especially  of  his  college  and  schools. 
He  put  an  end  to  their  power  to  do  mischief  in  this  way,  and  put 
an  end  to  it  energetically  and  with  effect.  Yet  in  1777,  when, 
amidst  popular  insult,  the  Quakers  were  arrested  and  sent  off  to 
Virginia  in  exile,  because  they  would  not  promise  to  abstain  from 
communications  with  General  Howe,  Dr.  Smith  entertained  them 
on  their  way  and  ministered  to  their  comfort  with  every  mark  of 
kindness. 

4.  It  was  a  notorious  fact  then,  as  now,  that  Dr.  Smith  had  been 
a  great  speculator  in  real  estate.  He  bought  large  quantities  of 
land  in  many  parts  of  Pennsylvania,  looking  forward  to  peopling 
and  improving  them,  and  to  a  rise  in  coming  time  in  their  value. 
In  this  there  was  nothing  immoral.  Indeed,  the  great  Earl  of 
Verulam,  Francis  Bacon,  who  tells  us  that  "the  ways  to  enrich  are 
many,  and  most  of  them  foul,"  reckons  "plantations" — within 
which  term  Dr.  Smith's  purchases  and  purposes  came — as  among 
"ancient,  primitive  and  heroical  works;  "  and  says  also  that  "the 
improvement  of  the  ground  is  the  most  natural  obtaining  of  riches, 
for  it  is  our  great  mother's  blessing:  the  earth's;  "  though  he  tells 
us  that  is  "  slow."     As  we  have  said,  there  was  nothing  immoral 


454  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1803 

in  any  part  of  this  mode  of  acquiring  wealth.  Nevertheless,  it  did 
tend  to  entangle  him  with  the  affairs  of  this  life,  and  did  tend  to 
prevent  his  applying  himself  wholly  to  that  one  great  duty  which 
lies  upon  the  bishop  as  well  as  upon  the  priest,  and  to  his  "  draw- 
ing all  his  cares  and  studies  in  that  way." 

It  was  doubtless  to  these  tastes  or  pursuits  of  Dr.  Smith  that 
Bishop  White  refers  when,  speaking  of  him,  he  says : 

His  talents  are  in  no  need  of  my  recommendation,  and  had  they  been 
devoted  to  literature,  and  not  too  much  devoted  to  politics  and  specu- 
lations in  land,  there  is  no  knowing  the  measure  of  celebrity  which 
might  be  thought  too  great  to  be  attained. 

5.  All  the  reasons  which  I  have  enumerated  why  Dr.  Smith  was 
not  the  best  person  for  a  bishop  in  a  new,  impoverished  and  highly 
republican  diocese,  without  doubt  existed,  and  they  were  all  good 
reasons  why  he  should  not  have  been  consecrated,  though  no  one 
of  them  fixed  upon  him  the  stain  of  immorality.  A  graver  one 
has  been  made.  It  is  not  exactly  that  he  was  "given  to  wine" — 
such  a  charge,  in  view  of  the  strong  attestations  of  good  character 
from  his  diocese  and  parish,  the  best  witnesses  of  his  daily  life, 
would  have  borne  falsehood  on  its  face — but  that  his  habits  being, 
in  accordance  with  those  of  most  gentlemen  in  his  day,  somewhat 
social,  he  was  on  one  occasion,  in  the  year  1785,  so  far  overtaken 
as  to  have  transcended  the  limits  allowable  to  the  clergy.  He 
himself,  we  know,  denied  the  charge  and  invited  proof  of  it ;  no 
proof  that  was  legal  proof — by  which  I  mean  that  a  court  of  jus- 
tice would  have  listened  to — was  ever,  that  I  know  of,  given. 
That  nothing  like  habitual  impropriety  in  this  way  was  ever  in- 
dulged, or  ever  supposed  to  be,  is  shown,  I  think,  conclusively,  not 
only  by  the  attestations  of  this  diocese  and  parish,  above  referred 
to,  but  by  the  numberless  appointments  of  honor  and  confidence 
with  which,  after  this  time,  he  was  invested  up  to  his  very  dying 
hours;  the  president  of  every  house  of  clerical  and  lay  deputies, 
from  the  time  of  the  constitution  of  such  a  chamber  till  his  physical 
infirmities  rendered  him  incapable  of  presiding  anywhere  at  all ; 
the  successively  selected  preacher  year  after  year  of  all  the  church 
at  the  consecration  of  her  first  three  bishops  consecrated  in 
America;*  appointed  on  almost  every  important  committee  con- 
stituted by  the  church  conventions  in  his  time,  and  usually  their 

*  Clagget,  Bass  and  Smith. 


1803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  455 

chairman;  the  friend  and  companion  of  the  most  virtuous  and 
most  honored  men  of  his  age  and  country. 

We  may  add,  that  no  journal  of  the  convention  shows  that  Dr. 
Smith  ever  desired  consecration,  whatever  his  friends  and  admirers 
may  have  urged;  and  none  of  his  correspondence  which  I  have 
seen,  either  in  print  or  in  MS.,  shows  that  he  ever  intended  so  to 
apply.  He  preached,  as  we  know,  and  with  graceful  alacrity,  in 
1792,  at  the  consecration  of  Dr.  Clagget  to  the  Episcopate  of 
Maryland ;  and,  in  the  sermon  then  delivered,  speaks  before  the 
assembled  bishops  and  clergy  and  lay  deputies,  of  the  humble 
station  which  he  himself  had  chosen  to  hold  in  the  church  during 
the  remaining  space  in  his  life. 

I  may  add  that  Dr.  Smith,  from  the  year  1779  till  the  year 
1789,  when  it  was  restored,  had  in  view,  notwithstanding  his  resi- 
dence and  activity  in  Maryland,  one  great  object — dearer,  far,  to 
him,  I  think,  than  a  mitre — and  that  was  the  restitution  to  his 
college  of  its  charter.  For  this,  wherever  he  was  and  in  whatever 
pursuit  engaged,  he  was  continually  laboring.  He  never  closed 
his  residence  nor  took  from  it  its  furniture,  at  the  Falls  of  Schuyl- 
kill, even  when  a  citizen  of  Maryland,  both  as  the  head  of  a  college 
and  as  the  rector  of  a  parish  there.  He  left  it  in  charge  of  his 
sister  Isabella,  a  sister  devoted  to  his  fame,  who  kept  it  with  care, 
subject  to  his  wishes  and  interests  alone.  He  was  constantly  at 
Philadelphia,  laboring  in  his  great  object.  In  1789,  the  year  in 
which  the  charter  was  restored,  Dr.  Smith  had  become  so  much 
advanced  in  years,  and  ecclesiastical  ambitions  had  so  little  hold 
on  his  affections,  that  he  seems  to  have  been  indifferent  to  the 
subject. 

I  suppose  that  in  times  like  these,  when  the  church  is  agitated 
with  much  discussion  upon  its  proper  characteristics,  I  shall  be 
expected  to  say  something  upon  what  will  be  called  Dr.  Smith's 
"Churchmanship" — of  what  sort  it  was:  high,  low,  or  what  else. 

I  have  already  said,  in  different  parts  of  this  book,  that  Dr. 
Smith's  cast  of  mind  did  not  lead  him  into  any  of  the  subtleties 
of  divinity.  He  was  not  a  recluse,  nor  by  distinction  a  student  of 
divinity.  He  was  not,  except  by  occasion,  and  only  then  tem- 
porarily, even  a  parish  priest,  bound  to  set  before  his  hearers  his 
views  upon  topics   important,  no  doubt,  to   be   taught  from   the 


456  LIFE   AND   CORRESPONDENCE  OF   THE  [1803 

pulpit,  but  not  in  their  nature  relating  directly  to  practical  duties. 
His  distinction,  so  far  as  preaching  was  concerned,  was  as  a  pulpit 
orator,  wherein  he  was,  I  think,  the  first  of  his  time  in  Phila- 
delphia; for,  though  his  pupil  Duche  was,  so  far  as  mere  elocution 
was  concerned,  his  equal,  possibly  his  superior,  Dr.  Smith,  in 
mental  power  and  richness  of  material,  was  so  far  above  him  that 
no  comparison  could  be  made  between  them. 

I  may  further  say  that  nothing  would  have  been  so  unwise  in 
Dr.  Smith  as  to  have  been  largely  enforcing,  during  his  time,  any 
one  special  class  of  views  which  good  men  in  our  church  have,  in 
all  its  history  since  the  Reformation,  entertained,  in  opposition  to 
other  views  entertained  by  other  men  as  good,  and,  in  my  view — 
assuming  the  liturgy,  the  rubrics,  the  articles  and  the  homilies,  all 
united,  as  expressing  her  views — as  much  within  the  church's  pale 
as  they.  It  must  be  remembered  that  when  Dr.  Smith  first  came  to 
Philadelphia  there  was  but  a  single  church  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land in  all  the  city — old  Christ  Church.  The  Quakers,  still 
writhing  under  the  attacks  of  Keith,  who  had  left  them,  were  em- 
bittered towards  the  very  name  of  the  Church  of  England.  7/  was 
the  great  object  of  their  hatred,  and  Dr.  Smith  himself  tells  us 
that  it  was  by  acting  on  the  maxim  Divide  et  impcra,  that  they 
hoped  to  destroy  it.* 

At  a  later  day  came  on  the  Illuminali,  the  infidelity  of  France 
and  the  assaults  of  its  revolution  upon  every  sort  of  religion, 
and  even  upon  the  existence  of  a  God;  when  all  who  named  the 
name  of  Christ  were  in  some  degree  compelled  to  unite,  the  one 
with  the  other,  in  order  to  preserve  Christianity  among  the  people 
at  all.  How  inappropriate  in  either  epoch  would  have  been  dis- 
cussions, elevate  though  they  were,  upon  topics  not  in  their  nature, 
perhaps,  identical  with  those  upon  which  "the  others  reasoned 
high,"  of  providence,  foreknowledge,  will  and  fate,  fixed  fate,  free- 
will, foreknowledge  absolute,  but  ending,  often  much  like  theirs, 
which  "found  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost." 

Indeed,  during  most  of  Dr.  Smith's  term  of  clerical  life  there 
was,  if  my  ideas  of  church  history  are  right,  no  great  agitation 

*  See  Vol.  I.  of  this  biography,  page  220.  We  can  in  this  day  hardly  form  an  idea 
cf  the  power  of  the  Quakers  in  oil  Philadelphia.  Think  of  Bishop  White  devoting 
many  months  of  his  life  to  writing  an  answer  to  Barclay's  Apology  !  He  considered 
this  ans>ver  his  ablest  and  most  finished  work. 


1803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.    D.  457 

anywhere  on  the  particular  class  of  topics  which  now  disturbs  us ; 
not  novelties,  any  of  them,  except  in  the  degree  to  which  they  are 
carried.  The  same  class  of  topics,  indeed,  agitated  the  Church  of 
England  in  different  degrees  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth,  Ed- 
ward VI.,  James  I.,  and  Charles  I.  So  they  did  in  the  days  of 
Charles  II.,  William  III.,  and  Anne.  We  may  even  say  that  they 
were  questions  which  embarrassed  the  Reformers  themselves. 
They  are,  some  of  them,  questions  of  essential  difficulty,  and  about 
which  those  who  think  most,  talk  little,  and  dogmatize  not  at  all. 
But  in  the  days  of  the  first  and  second  and  third  Georges,  the  agi- 
tation had  ceased.  The  first  two  were  stolid  Germans,  and  the 
third,  though  a  good  man  and  a  far  better  king  than  those  who 
believe  in  Byron  think — not  a  schoolman  or  casuist.  The  theo- 
logical writings  of  the  day  were  of  another  complexion.  The  old 
questions  have  now  in  the  periodicity  of  things  of  course  come 
back.  We  have  had  the  anabasis.  We  are  now  at  the  acme.  The 
decline  will  begin  to-mcrrow. 

But  still  I  am  asked  by  one,  "Was  not  Dr.  Smith  a  high-church- 
man? "  and  by  another,  "  Was  not  Dr.  Smith  a  low-churchman?  " 
A^-pov !  I  am  tempted  to  exclaim  in  response  to  one  inquirer  as  to 
the  other.  Tell  me,  first,  what  is  "  a  low-churchman  ?  "  What  is 
"  a  high-churchman  ?  " 

In  the  days  succeeding  the  English  Revolution  of  1688  the 
matter  was  half  a  political  question  If  a  man  adhered  to  the 
Stuarts,  he  was  a  high-churchman.  If  to  the  House  of  Orange,  a 
low-churchman. 

At  a  later  day,  with  us,  Dr.  Scabury  was  opposed  to  having  the 
laity  take  any  part  in  the  government  of  the  church,  had  a  mitre, 
wrote  himself  "  Samuel  Connecticut,"  "Samuel,  Bishop  of  Con- 
necticut," and  in  every  form,  I  believe,  but  that  one  which  the 
churches  in  the  Southern  and  Middle  States  recommended  bishops 
to  write  themselves,  in  which  the  minutes  of  conventions  in  which 
he  sat  described  him,  and  in  which  he  described  the  only  bishop, 
if  I  remember,  that  he  assisted  to  consecrate.  In  popular  idea 
this  made  him  a  very  high-churchman.  Bishop  White  and  Bishop 
Provoost  insisted  on  the  admission  of  the  laity,  wrote  their  own 
names  more  humbly,  did  not  use  mitres.  This  made  them  in 
popular  idea  /W-churchmen ;  not  that  between  Bishop  Seabury 
and  both  the  other  bishops,  so  far  as  I  know  the  views  of  Bishop 


4-58  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  C1^ 

Provoost,  distinctions  of  view  better  making  the  titles  did  not 
exist. 

Bishop  Hobart  was  called  a  high-churchman  and  denounced 
through  all  his  life  as  such,  not  because  he  held  to  any  view  of 
the  Eucharist  or  of  the  ministry,  or  performed  any  services  or 
offices  of  the  church  in  a  way  largely  different  from  many  of  his 
brethren,  but  because  he  enforced  upon  his  clergy  strongly,  and 
often  with  fervor  and  with  eloquence,  that  the  church  founded  by 
the  Saviour,  and  which  he  (the  bishop)  considered  best  represented 
in  this  day  by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  subsisted  under  certain  distinctive  principles  of 
doctrine,  ministry  and  worship,  and  not  under  all  the  shapes  into 
which  fanaticism,  ambition,  ignorance,  or  interest  might  choose  to 
mould  it.  With  no  considerable  difference  of  opinion  from  him 
on  this  point,  although  his  mode  of  teaching  it  was  less  fervid, 
Bishop  White  was  called  a  low  one. 

In  1826-27  we  nad  in  Pennsylvania  a  body  of  clergy  whose 
views  and  practices  were  unlike  those  of  Bishop  White.  He  then 
took  a  strong  distinction,  showing  in  his  mind  great  differences 
between  low-churchmen  and  low-churchmen.  There  were  the 
men  known  in  history  of  England  as  low-churchmen,  Tillot- 
son,  Burnet,  and  some  others  a  little  higher,  perhaps,  though 
not  any,  lower  than  they,  which  class  expressed,  with  more 
or  less  precision,  the  Bishop's  views.  But  those  known  at  the 
date  we  speak  of  as  low-churchmen  in  Pennsylvania — with  whose 
theological  opinions,  though,  happily,  it  may  be  reasonably 
hoped,  net  with  their  tempers  and  practices,  a  part  of  the 
clergy,  I  presume,  remain  in  line — he  repelled  and  renounced 
in  memorable  language  his  affiliation  with.  One  of  them, 
in  a  convention  of  the  church,  where  the  degrees  of  altitude 
were  strongly  marked,  alluded  to  the  Bishop  himself  as  being 
a  low-churchman — one  of  their  party.  "  The  gentle  old  man," 
says  a  narrator  of  the  scene,  "showed  that,  like  flint,  if  struck  hard 
enough,  he  could  flash  fire.  He  rose  at  once,  apologizing  for  such 
an  unusual  thing  on  his  part  as  interrupting  a  debate,  but  the  per- 
sonal allusion  to  himself  must  be  his  excuse.  As  the  word  was 
used  in  England  and  a  hundred  years  ago,  perhaps  it  might  not 
be  altogether  incorrect  to  call  him  a  low-churchman.  '  But,'  con- 
tinued he,  with  an  emphasis  rare  indeed  as  coming  from  his  lips, 


1803]  REV.    WILLTAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  459 

'as  the  word  is  understood  in  this  country,  you  might  as  well  call 
me  a  Turk  or  a  Jew.'  "* 

Some  men  are  "  high  "  on  some  points — "  low  "  on  others. 

We  have  spoken  in  a  note  of  Bishop  Hopkins.  From  his  first 
entrance  into  the  church  he  was  a  devoted  reader,  lover  and  ex- 
positor of  the  fathers.  Those  called  the  apostolic  ones  I  think  he 
could  have  said  by  heart.  There  was  not  a  line  of  the  Origincs 
Sacra  which  he  could  not  point  to.  Never  did  lie  find  "  ancient 
authors" — by  whom  are  meant  the  early  fathers — to  contradict 
the  Bible,  whether  in  its  parts  new  or  old;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
found  in  them  the  Bible's  strong  supports.  In  all  the  "wrought 
gold"  which  decorates  the  clothing  of  the  daughter  of  Zion  he 
delighted.  The  ornaments  of  the  chancel,  the  dress  of  the  priest- 
hood, the  fragrance  of  myrrh,  aloes  and  cassia  out  of  the  ivory 
palaces — all  these  things  found  interest  in  his  beautiful  tastes  just 
as  much  as  did  those  higher  things,  in  his  deeper  heart,  which 
make  the  church  "all  glorious  within."  These  first  arc  the  mat- 
ters which,  in  the  estimation  of  many,  make  the  alto,  as  in  their 
estimation  do  dislikes  of  them  the  basso.  But  Bishop  Hopkins's 
ecclesiastical  views — his  views  of  doctrine,  discipline  and  worship 
alike — were  in  many  respects  very  high;  and  they  were  got  from 
the  early  fathers,  as  from  the  Epistles  and  Gospels.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  understand  his  views,  many  of  which  I  admire.  But  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  assign  him  to  any  class  of  thinkers  on  the  Episcopal  bench. 
Yet  a  party  which  was  composed  of  the  lowest  churchmen  that 
ever  were  in  Pennsylvania,  were  desirous  to  make  him  bishop  of 
its  vast  diocese,  rather  than  to  have  Dr.  Bird  Wilson,  the  last 
of  men  to  carry  anything  but  holiness  of  life  into  lofty  pitch,  or 
than  Henry  Ustick  Onderdonk,  the  greatest  original  thinker  and 
logician  of  the  American  church,  but  who,  if  his  tract  on  Regen- 
eration expressed  his  best  judgments,  which  I  hardly  think  it  did, 
was  more  like  themselves  than  like  any  high  expositor  in  the 
Church  of  England. 

*  Life  of  Bishop  Hopkins,  by  one  of  his  sons,  second  edition,  page  101.  I  know 
from  a  person  of  indubitable  authority  yet  living,  and  who  was  present  in  the  conven- 
tion where  Bishop  White's  declaration  is  said  to  have  been  made,  that  this  statement 
of  Bishop  Hopkins's  son  is  strictly  accurate;  and  I  have  heard  it  also  from  another 
of  no  less  accuracy,  who  was  present,  but  is  now  dead.  I  may  add  that  from  my  own 
recollections  of  what  1  heard  from  many  persons,  witnesses  of  the  scenes,  the  account 
ol  all  the  proceedings  of  1826  and  1827,  as  given  in  the  Life  of  Bishop  Hopkins,  is 
strictly  true.     But  not  the  idea  that  Bishop  White  voted  in  1786  for  his  own  election. 


460  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1803 

In  this  day,  accepting,  as  tests,  the  standards  of  ordinary 
conversation,  I  am  unable  to  say  what  high-churchmen  and 
what  low-churchmen  are.  Indeed,  if  I  had  not  certain  old- 
fashioned,  but,  as  I  think,  very  good  charts,  on  which  the  "main 
channel "  and  all  important  soundings  are  marked,  I  should 
be  unable  to  tell  where,  ecclesiastically,  I  am  sailing — indeed, 
whether  to  quicksands  or  the  port.  It  is  a  good  while,  in  the 
political  world,  since  I  have  found  any  body  of  men,  large  enough 
to  be  called  a  party,  in  which  I  am  willing  to  class  myself.  I 
begin  of  late  to  fear  that  I  shall  be  in  the  same  condition  in  mat- 
ters far  more  important. 

Until,  therefore,  my  inquiring  friends  define  for  me  their  terms 
a  little  better  than  they  do,  they  must  excuse  my  not  answering 
very  categorically  their  inquiries. 

On  certain  subjects,  which  some  persons  consider  as  distin- 
guishing the  degrees  of  ecclesiastical  altitude,  and  which,  if  they 
do  not  distinguish  them  in  essence,  are  often  more  or  less 
identified  with  them,  we  need  not  attempt  to  "locate  "  Dr.  Smith  ; 
for  he  has  sufficiently  "  located  "  himself.  That  he  abhorred  all 
irregularities  in  the  performance  of  divine  service,  the  use  of  ex- 
tempore prayers  there — declaiming  against  any  of  the  church's 
doctrines,  as  Regeneration  (in  the  sense  in  which  the  church  uses 
the  term) — that  there  was  not  in  him  the  least  tincture  of  Metho- 
dism or  Calvinism  ;  all  this  can  be  inferred  from  the  way  in  which 
he  speaks  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Macclanechan,  the  founder  of  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Philadelphia.  He  is  describing  this  reverend  gentleman 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: 

With  a  huge  stature  and  voice  more  than  stentorian,  he  started  up 
before  his  sermon ;  and,  instead  of  using  any  of  the  excellent  forms  pro- 
vided in  our  Liturgy,  or  a  form  in  the  nature  and  substance  of  that 
enjoined  by  the  55th  Canon,  he  addressed  the  Majesty  of  Heaven  with  a 
long  catalogue  of  epithets,  such  as  "sin-pardoning,  all-seeing,  heart- 
searching,  rein-trying  God. ' '  We  thank  thee  that  we  are  all  here  to-day, 
and  not  in  hell.  Such  an  unusual  manner  in  our  church  sufficiently 
fixed  my  attention,  which  was  exercised  by  a  strange  extempore  rhapsody 
of  more  than  twenty  minutes,  and  afterwards  a  sermon  of  about  sixty- 
eight  minutes  more.  I  have  heard  him  again  and  again,  and  still  we 
have  the  same  wild,  incoherent  rhapsodies  of  which  I  can  give  no  ac- 
count other  than  that  they  consist  of  a  continual  ringing  of  the  changes 
upon  the  words  "Regeneration,"   "Instantaneous  conversion,"  "Im- 


1S03]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,   D.  D.  4&l 

puted  righteousness,"  "The  new  birth,"  etc.  But  I  find  no  practical 
use  made  of  these  terms,  nor  does  he  offer  anything  to  explain  them, 
or  to  tell  us  what  he  would  be  at. 

What  sort  of  respect  Dr.  Smith  had  for  Episcopal  authority  and 
for  the  "Induction,"  or,  as  we  in  our  American  church  call  it,  the 
"Institution"  of  ministers,  may  be  inferred  from  his  further  ac- 
count of  the  reverend  gentleman  just  named: 

Mr.  Macclanechan  spoke  much  of  his  popularity;  the  call  he  had 
from  the  people  to  be  their  minister,  which  he  pretends,  gives  the  only 
right  title.  The  Bishop1  s  authority  he  spoke  of  very  disrespectfully, 
and  said  it  could  never  bind  the  people.  I  replied  that  ...  it  was 
certainly  binding  on  him  and  me,  who  were  of  the  clergy.* 

In  regard  to  the  ministry  Dr.  Smith  declares  that  the  three 
orders  of  bishops,  priests  and  deacons  are  necessary  to  the 
proper  establishment  of  the  church,  and  shows  everywhere  his 
high  appreciation  of  the  threefold  order,  f  And  if,  referring  to 
what  had  been  enacted  both  by  the  Church  and  Parliament  of 
England,  he  suggested  it  to  the  Bishop  of  London  to  consider 
whether  anything  could  be  done  to  bring  into  our  church,  without 
other  ordination  than  what  they  had,  the  German  Lutheran  clergy 
of  Pennsylvania,  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  does  not  express 
any  opinion  on  the  subject  himself;  but  treats  it  as  one  which  it 
does  not  become  Mm  "any  further  to  meddle  with  than  just  to 
mention  the  facts  and  the  great  accession  it  might  bring  to  our 
church."*  He  considered  possibly  that  as  there  was  no  bishop  in 
America  who  could  have  ordained  these  persons  when  they  en- 
tered on  their  work,  and  was  none  now,  the  case  fell  within  an 
except;on  recognized  by  many  learned  and  pious  men  in  the 
Church  of  England  who  were  considered  sound  churchmen, 
and  which,  tliough  imder  very  different  circumstances  of  fact,  Dr. 
White  recognized  as  temporarily  dispensing  with  regular  ordination 
in  our  own  ministers.  He  knew  that  the  Church  of  England 
recognizes  the  validity  of  the  Moravian,  Swedish,  and  perhaps  the 
Danish  orders.  We  havj  noted  the  high  respect  paid  in  Phila- 
delphia to  the  Lutheran  body;  Dr.  Peters,  the  rector  of  Christ 
Church,  saying,  in  1764,  when  preaching  from  one  of  its  pulpits, 

*  See  this  work,  Vol.  I.,  p.  225.  f  Supra,  p.  97.  \  Vol.  I.,  p.  404. 


4^2  LIFE  AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF  THE  [1803 

that  he  had  "a  very  sensible  pleasure  in  being  able  publicly  to  de- 
clare that  between  your  church,  the  Swedish,  and  our  own  Epis- 
copal Church  there  has  always  been,  from  the  very  first,  a  kind 
and  loving  participation  of  divine  service  and  brotherly  love."  At 
a  much  later  day,  1794,  when  the  German  Lutheran  Church  was 
burned  down,  the  corporation  of  Christ  Church  put  their  own 
sacred  edifice  at  the  command,  for  one  part  of  the  day,  Sundays 
and  week-days,  of  these  brethren.*  My  ancestor  may  perhaps 
have  considered  the  German  Lutheran  body  as  standing  in  a  favored 
position.  My  ecclesiastical  learning  will  not  bear  me  out  in  de- 
ciding how  this  may  have  been.  Neither  would  it  leave  his 
integrity  in  any  way  "off  color,"  if  we  were  to  suppose  that  his 
action  in  this  respect — a  mere  suggestion  to  the  Bishop  of  London 
for  him  to  consider  the  matter — was  done  through  policy,  at  the 
desire  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  or  some  other  Lutheran  clergyman, 
whom  he  was  willing  to  conciliate,  and  without  expectation  that 
the  Bishop  of  London  would  receive  them. 

Dr.  Smith  hoped  to  see  in  our  large  cities  the  churches  daily 
open,  and  morning  and  evening  prayer  said  daily  throughout  the 
year.f 

He  did  not  wish  to  see  the  services  made  too  "naked,"!  an<^  we 
may  be  sure,  from  what  he  had  provided  on  several  occasions  of 
religious  solemnity,!  that  he  would  have  enjoyed  the  choral  ser- 
vice— that  form  of  service  which,  ever  since  the  Reformation,  the 
Church  of  England  has  in  her  cathedrals,  her  chapels-royal  and 
collegiate  churches,  in  her  Temple  church,  and  in  the  churches  of 
her  Inns  of  Court — everywhere,  in  short,  throughout  her  beautiful 
land — would  have  enjoyed  it,  I  say,  to  the  very  depths  of  his 
soul. 

In  regard  to  the  holy  communion,  he  assisted  Bishop  Seabury 
in  making  that  which  was  a  fuller  consecration  of  the  elements 
than  the  ceremony  which — yielding  to  the  demands  of  Puritanism — 
the  Church  of  England  of  his  day  made  and  now  makes:  and  was, 
in  fact,  the  person  who  carried  through  the  lower  House  of  the 
convention  of  1789  the  views  called  high-church,  of  the  great 
churchman  and  Bishop  of  Connecticut.||  He  made,  too,  of  that 
service  an  imposing  celebration.^     He  enforced  upon  his  parish- 

*  Dorr's  History  of  Christ  Church,  p.  218.       f  Supra,  p.  207.        %  Supra,  p.  210. 
\  See  Vol.  I.,  p.  544;  also  Dr.  Smith's  Writings,  Maxwell's  ed.,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  49,  67. 
||  Supra,  p.  290.  \  Supra,  p.  199. 


1803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.   D.  463 

ioncrs  the  necessity  of  frequent  communion;  and,  if  we  may  argue 
from  his  Preface  to  the  Proposed  Book,  wished  to  have  the  daily 
administration  of  it* 

Even  in  his  Proposed  Book — made  in  part,  but  in  concession  to 
prejudices — he  left  that  ancient  rubric  of  the  Church  of  England 
which  declares  that  a  sick  person,  when  visited  by  the  minister  of 
the  parish,  shall  "be  moved  to  make  a  special  confession  of  his 
sins,  if  he  feel  his  conscience  troubled  with  any  weighty  matter; " 
and  while  he  did  not  leave  the  specific  personal  absolution  of  the 
English  book,  he  put  a  form  which  can  hardly  be  called,  and  is 
nowhere  in  our  Prayer  Book  called,  but  "a  declaration  of  absolu- 
tion." The  Church  of  England  calls  it  an  "absolution."  Our 
own  church  abstains  from  saying,  in  terms,  exactly  what  "  Or  this" 
is.  *But  Dr.  Smith  nowhere  ever  proposed  to  introduce  this  sort 
of  thing  as  a  common  practice  in  the  church,  or  to  make  the  ex- 
treme medicine  of  a  burthened  dying  soul  the  common  daily  food 
of  him  that  was  in  no  near  sight  of  death,  and  every  morning  and 
every  evening  of  his  life,  if  the  clergy  did  their  duty  and  had  the 
churches  open,  could  confess  his  sins  publicly  with  the  rest  of 
God's  penitent  people,  in  his  holy  temple,  and  receive  full  comfort 
in  the  priestly  declaration  or  act  which  follows. 

Neither  do  we  anywhere  perceive,  in  that  part  of  his  writings 
which  are  connected  with  the  establishment  of  the  church  in 
America,  any  such  dangerous  view  as  one  which  has  been  more 
than  adumbrated  among  us,  that  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America  is,  in  any  essential  respect  of 
doctrine,  discipline  or  worship,  a  church  different  from  that  great 
bulwark  of  Protestantism,  the  Church  of  England,  and  further  re- 
moved than  it  from  Popish  practices,  whether  complete,  incomplete, 
or  inchoate,  whether  symbolized  only  or  substantial,  f  Both  in  the 
Preface,  which  was  his  entirely,  to  the  Proposed  Book — the  book 
of  1785 — and  in  the  Preface  to  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of 
1789,  which,  if  not  his  entirely,  was  based  largely  on  what  was 
his,  such  a  doctrine  is  repelled — repelled  every  way;  by  the  whole 
course  of  the  argument,  which  shows  the  propriety  of  occasional 
alterations  "in  forms  and  usages,"  provided  "the  substance  of  the 
faith  is  kept  entire,"  and  repelled  by  specific  words  which  say, 
that  with  all  the  alterations  and   amendments  which  have  been 

*See  supra,  pp.  440,  161.  f  See  Appendix,  No.  XVII. 


464  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE    OF   THE  [1803 

made  "this  Church  is  far  from  intending  to  depart  from  the 
Church  of  England  in  any  essential  point  of  doctrine,  discipline, 
or  worship ;  or  further  than  local  circumstances  may  require." 
Dr.  Smith  would  not,  in  their  hour  of  common  peril,  and  when 
beleagured  by  a  common  enemy,  have  turned  his  back  upon  his 
"  mother,  the  Church  of  England  " — the  church  of  Cranmer, 
and  Ridley,  and  Latimer,  and  of  the  whole  glorious  host  of  sons 
who  have  fought  for  and  maintained  that  faith  for  which  they 
died — in  this  way.  He  was  far  too  wary,  if  he  had  not  been  too 
sound-headed,  ever  to  have  made  such  a  concession  to  the  enemy; 
one  which  surrenders  the  whole  case  to  both  our  present  enemies, 
though  each  is  more  opposed  to  each  other,  than  either  is  to  us. 

If  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England  au- 
thorizes, though  but  in  latency,  the  practices  of  Rome,  or,  even  in 
their  smouldering  ashes,  still  preserves  Rome's  living  doctrines;  and 
if  they  who  made  our  prayer  book  did  not  intend — were  far  from 
intending — to  depart  from  that  church  in  any  essential  point 
of  doctrine,  discipline,  or  worship,  or  further  than  local  circum- 
stances require,  how  can  we  defend  ourselves  from  the  "  Low 
Papists  " — sometimes  called  Ritualists — who  are  disturbing  its 
peace  and  misapplying,  in  a  disingenuous,  dangerous  and  unwar- 
ranted way,  its  doctrines?  And  how,  again,  are  we  to  answer  the 
authors  of  the  so-called  Reformed  Episcopal  Church  ?  They 
assert  exactly  what  this  view  admits,  adding  only  to  it  what 
the  declarations  of  the  Preface  to  our  prayer  solemnly  affirm. 
And  both  these  parties,  the  semi-papists  and  radicals,  enter  our 
citadel  together!  Our  whole  case  is  given  up  by  such  a  position. 
Noil  tali  auxilio,  nee  defensoribus  istis,  would  Dr.  Smith  have 
dealt  with  the  parties  who  are  taking  us,  one-half  of  them  to  the 
gates  of  Rome,  and  the  other  to  the  shores  of  Geneva.  He  would 
have  said  to  them,  and  his  position  would  have  been  true:  "Our 
church,  by  the  changes  which  it  has  made  in  the  English  book, 
coupled  with  the  solemn  assurances  which  it  has  given  in  the 
new  Preface,  that  it  does  not  intend  to  depart  from  the  Church  of 
England  in  any  essential  point  of  doctrine,  discipline,  or  worship, 
or  further  than  local  circumstances  require ;  tells  you  that  you 
misinterpret  the  rubrics,  prayers,  and  other  things  in  the  book  of 
the  Church  of  England ;  that  you  wrest  them  from  their  proper 
sense;   and  that  rightly  interpreted — interpreted  by  her  articles, 


1803]  REV.    WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.  D.  465 

her  homilies,  her  practice  for  generation  after  generation,  and  by 
an  intelligent  consideration  of  those  circumstances  and  difficulties 
in  her  history  under  which  all  were  made — circumstances  which 
presuppose  both  knowledge  and  moral  and  intellectual  faculties 
on  the  part  of  him  who  is  to  consider  them,  and  which  are  not 
of  the  class  of  things  to  be  measured  on  a  two-foot  rule,  or  counted 
on  ten  fingers — that  thus  interpreted  the  Church  of  England  is 
just  as  far  from  the  doctrines  and  the  practices  of  Rome  as  is  her 
daughter,  the  church  in  America.      , 

And  is  not  this  argument  from  a  change  of  rubric  two-edged? 
The  English  book  directs  that  the  reader  of  the  lessons  turn  him- 
self and  read  so  as  best  to  be  heard  of  all.  This  direction  is  left 
out  of  our  rubric.  Are  Popish  mumblings,  with  face  averted,  au- 
thorized for  us?  Again,  that  book  declares  that  though  the 
elements  in  the  Lord's  Supper  are  to  be  received  kneeling,  no 
adoration  is  intended  to  them,  or  to  any  corporal  presence  of 
Christ's  natural  flesh  and  blood.  Our  book  suppresses  this  declara- 
tion, and  makes  a  higher  "  consecration."  May  we  adore  the 
elements  and  the  corporal  presence  ? 

I  advert  with  more  interest  to  other  things.  All  will  agree  with 
me,  I  think,  that  the  life  of  Dr.  Smith  was  a  well-spent  life,  actively 
devoted  to  useful  and  beneficent  objects.  Look  at  the  number  of 
young  men  whom  he  trained  in  the  early  provincial  days  to  re- 
ligion, literature,  the  arts  and  statesmanship.  We  cannot  begin  to 
tell  them;  but  the  names  of  William  White,  Jacob  Duche,  John 
Andrews,  Thomas  Coombe,  Thomas  Hopkinson,  Samuel  Magaw, 
James  Abercrombie,  among  the  clergy,  come  to  our  minds,  as  do 
those  of  Francis  Hopkinson,  William  Paca,  Richard  Peters,  Alex- 
ander Wilcocks,  James  Tilghman,  William  Bingham,  Benjamin 
Chew,  and  many  others  among  our  men  of  State,  our  lawyers  and 
our  men  of  worth.  Look  at  his  early  patronage  of  Benjamin  West, 
imbuing  his  mind  with  classical  taste  and  assisting  him  to  the 
means  of  developing  his  extraordinary  genius.  Look,  too,  at  his 
disinterested  and  kind  labor  in  bringing  the  works  of  young 
Godfrey  before  the  world  and  those  of  Nathaniel  Evans,  all  the 
profits  of  which  he  gives  to  the  widows  and  children  of  the  clergy. 
Look  at  that  most  beneficent  institution,  the  corporation  for  the 
relief  of  these  widows  and  children  of  his  brethren — the  long, 
laborious  work  chiefly  of  his  hands — still  subsisting  in  wealth  and 
3° 


466  LIFE   AND    CORRESPONDENCE.  [*803 

diffusing  blessings  the  extent  of  which  it  is  hard  to  exaggerate. 
Look  at  his  labors  in  the  pulpit  for  fifty  years,  and  that  great 
series  of  sermons — making  a  cycle  of  Christian  duty — which  we 
give  in  our  preceding  pages.*  What  a  body  of  texts;  what  a  field 
cf  thought  to  traverse  !  See  him  ever  ready  to  devote  his  splendid 
powers  to  any  cause  in  which  he  could  subserve  the  interests  of 
humanity.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  though  Franklin,  who  was  not  in  the  country  then,  nor 
for  years  afterwards,  got  the  credit  of  it.  An  astronomer,  a  clas- 
sical scholar,  a  statesman,  an  orator.  How  various  his  powers ! 
how  high  his  accomplishments  ! 

Of  his  labors  in  the  councils  of  the  church  how  can  we  speak 
too  highly?  During  much  of  the  Provincial  epoch  he  was  its 
one  great  character.  To  him  more  than  to  any  other  person,  nay, 
more  than  to  all  other  persons  in  the  Province,  Pennsylvania  owes 
its  deserved  reputation  for  the  sound,  learned  and  pious  clergy 
which,  unlike  Virginia  and  some  other  States,  it  had  before  the 
Revolution.  And  after  the  peace  of  1783  no  man  but  William 
White — he  the  fruit  of  Dr.  Smith's  training  from  his  seventh  year 
till  his  seventeenth — stands  before  or,  in  point  of  splendid  accom- 
plishments, near  him.  In  the  work  of  internal  improvements  in 
Pennsylvania  he  was  a  pioneer.  This  State  owes  to  his  memory 
a  debt,  with  large  arrears  of  interest,  which  she  has  never  thought 
of  and  will  never  discharge. 

Of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  now  becoming  a  seat  of 
learning  which  may  rank  with  the  colleges  of  "Oxford"  and  of 
Washington  College,  Maryland,  to  whose  history  "Ipswich"  would 
afford  an  unjust  similitude,  what  shall  I  say  ?  How  naturally  the 
poet's  words  flow  from  my  pen : 

Ever  witness  for  him 
Those  twins  of  learning  that  he  raised  in  you ! 

One  of  which  fell  with  him, 
Unwilling  to  outlive  the  good  that  did  it; 
The  other,  though  unfinished,  yet  so  famous, 
So  excellent  in  art,  and  still  so  rising 
That  Christendom  shall  ever  speak  his  virtue. 

*  Pages  432-442- 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. — Page  6i. 


The  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D.,  as  we  learn  from  the  "Annals 
of  Newtown,  Long  Island,"  a  historical  work  by  James  Riker,  Esq.,* 
was  descended  from  English  ancestors  of  his  own  name.  The  ancient 
importance  in  England  of  the  family  of  Blackwell,  itself,  is  indicated, 
says  Mr.  Riker,  by  the  fact  that  no  less  than  six  towns  in  that  kingdom 
bear  the  name.  An  engraving  in  Mr.  Riker's  book,  from  an  ancient 
seal,  would  indicate  that  .the  branch  of  this  family  from  which  the 
subject  of  our  notice  came  was  that  one  long  settled  in  the  county  of 
Norfolk. 

The  great- grand  father  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Blackwell  was  named,  like  Dr. 
Blackwell  himself,  Robert.  We  find  him  established,  a.  d.  1676,  more 
than  two  centuries  ago,  at  Newtown,  L.  I.,  where  he  became  owner  of 
valuable  estates  upon  the  East  river,  and  with  them  of  the  island  in  that 
water  immediately  opposite  to  New  York,  now  and  for  two  hundred 
years  past  known  as  Blackwell's  island.  He  married,  a.  d.  1676,  Mary 
Manningham,  and  died  in  or  about  the  year  171 7. 

The  son  of  this  Robert  was  Jacob  Blackwell,  born  August  4,  1692. 
He  succeeded  to  his  paternal  estates,  upon  which  he  is  supposed  to 
have  erected  the  fine  mansion  which  he  long  occupied,  yet,  or  lately, 
standing  —  directly  opposite  to  Blackwell's  island — and  hereinafter 
mentioned. f  He  married,  10th  of  May,  1711,  Mary,  daughter  of  Cap- 
tain William  Hallet  and  Sarah,  his  wife,  daughter  of  George  Woolsey, 
of  Jamaica,  L.  I.  Captain  Hallet,  by  grants  dated  December  1,  1652, 
and  August,  1654,  acquired  large  possessions  at  Hell-Gate  and  upon 
that  portion  of  the  island  which  now  bears  the  name  of  Hallet's  Cove. 

*  Page  354. 

f  Its  position  is  indicated  on  Mr.  Riker's  map  of  Newtown  as  "  The  Old  Blackwell 
House,  now  Rev.  J.  L.  Thomson's." 

(467) 


468  APPENDIX. 

The  father  of  Dr.  Blackwell  was  Colonel  Jacob  Blackwell,  born 
November  20,  171 7,  a  son  of  the  Jacob  Blackwell  just  mentioned. 
Colonel  Blackwell  succeeded  to  the  family  estates  on  Long  Island  and 
on  the  East  river,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  December  1,  1744.  He 
was  a  man  of  parts,  and  of  liberal  dispositions.  In  March,  1740,  he 
assisted  to  erect  and  liberally  endow  a  church  edifice  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  services  of  the  Church  of  England.  A  petition  made  by 
him,  and  the  other  founders,  to  the  royal  authorities,  for  a  charter,  sets 
forth : 

That  the  petitioners  have,  at  a  very  great  expense,  erected  a  decent  church,  and 
dedicated  the  same  to  the  worship  of  Almighty  God,  according  to  the  rites  and  cere- 
monies of  the  Church  of  England,  as  by  law  established,  by  the  name  of  St.  James's 
Church,  and  have  obtained  about  a  quarter  of  an  acre  of  land  adjoining,  for  the  use 
of  a  cemetery,  and  were  determined  to  make  a  suitable  provision  for  the  support  of  a 
minister  or  pastor,  that  religious  duties,  for  the  time  to  come,  may  be  duly  and  regu- 
larly celebrated  therein.  But  that  they  cannot  carry  on  this  good  design  to  advantage 
except  they  be  incorporated.* 

The  petition  was  granted,  and  the  church  incorporated  by  letters 
patent  dated  the  9th  of  September,  1761.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury — 
afterwards  the  honored  Bishop  of  Connecticut — was  the  first  rector  of 
the  church. f 

As  early,  too,  it  would  seem,  as  1759,  along  with  his  family  connec- 
tions of  the  name  of  Hallet,  Colonel  Blackwell  was  instrumental  in 
establishing  at  Hallet's  Cove,  near  their  common  residence,  a  school, 
where  Greek  and  Roman  literature  should  form  a  part  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  education.  It  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  an  Englishman 
named  Rudge,  from  the  city  of  Gloucester,  in  England,  and  who, 
Colonel  Blackwell  and  his  relatives  certify,  in  a  public  advertisement 
of  the  school,  had  proved  himself  "a  man  of  close  application  and  so- 
briety, and  to  be  capable  of  his  office.  "J 

Prior  to  the  French  and  Indian  war  of  1756-63  this  member  of  the 
family  of  Blackwell  had  been  appointed  to  a  captaincy  in  the  Newtown 
militia.  He  was  afterwards  promoted  to  the  grade  of  colonel.  He  was 
early  prominent  in  remonstrating  against  those  measures  of  the  British 
Crown,  the  attempt  to  enforce  which  caused  to  Great  Britain  the  loss 
of  her  western  empire.  His  landed  interests,  and  his  known  attach- 
ment alike  to  the  principles  of  government  and  freedom,  caused  him  to 
be  called,  29th  of  December,  1774.  to  preside  at  a  convention  of  the 
Freeholders  of  Queen's  county,  which  expressed  in  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions, not  surpassed  as  a  declaration  of  true  colonial  po'ncy,  the  con- 

*  Riker's  Annals,  249-251 ;  354,  358.  f  Ibid.,  16.  J  Ibid.,  167. 


APPENDIX.  469 

viction  entertained  in  America  of  the  impolitic  and  unjust  character 
of  the  ministerial  measures.  He  was  subsequently  elected  to  represent 
the  important  county  just  above  named  in  the  Provincial  Convention 
of  New  York,  a  body  which  exercised  great  influence  at  this  crisis  and 
afterwards.  While  attending  to  his  public  duties  in  New  York,  his 
estates  on  Long  Island  were  seized  by  the  commander  of  the  British 
forces,  which  had  recently  proved  victorious  in  that  region,  and  con- 
fiscated. "At  the  venerable  stone  house  in  Ravenswood,"  says  the 
annalist  of  Newtown,  Mr.  Riker,  writing  a.  d.  1852,  "may  still  be  seen 
the  mark  of  the  broad  arrow  (*T)  branded  upon  the  front  door  by  the 
British,  denoting  that  it  was  the  property  of  a  rebel,  and  as  such  confis- 
cated to  the  Crown.  Colonel  Blackwell,  however,  recovered  his  estates 
a  short  time  before  his  death  ;  an  event  which  occurred  October  23, 
1780,  and  which,"  says  Mr.  Riker,  "the  privations  and  pecuniary 
losses  he  suffered  from  the  enemy  are  believed  to  have  hastened."* 

Colonel  Blackwell  married  Frances,  daughter  of  Joseph  Sackett,  Esq., 
of  Queen's  county,  one  of  the  Justices  under  the  Crown  for  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas,  and  Hannah,  his  wife,  daughter  of  Richard  Alsop. 
By  this  marriage  he  had  issue,  the  immediate  subject  of  our  notice. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D.,  was  born  May  6,  1748.  We 
have  no  certain  knowledge  where  he  received  his  primary  education  ; 
probably  in  part  at  the  English  and  classical  school,  which  we  have  just 
mentioned  that  his  father  was  instrumental  in  establishing.  From  the 
work  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Davies  Alexander,  entitled  "Princeton  Col- 
lege during  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  we  learn  that  he  was  graduated 
in  the  venerable  college  just  named,  with  a  bachelor's  degree,  a.  d.  1768. 
King's  College  conferred  on  him,  a.  d.  1770,  the  same  degree,  and 
Princeton  again  the  Master's,  a.  d.  1782.  He  seems  to  have  been  im- 
bued with  serious  impressions  from  early  years.  His  first  studies,  how- 
ever, were  apparently  towards  physic. 

There  was  no  theological  school  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
colonies.  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Blackwell  may  have  read  divinity 
under  the  care  of  Dr.  Samuel  Auchmuty,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
New  York,  or  possibly  under  that  of  Mr.  Seabury.  While  reading 
divinity  he  appears  to  have  passed  about  two  years  as  a  tutor  in  the 
family  of  Colonel  Frederick  Philipse,  a  man  of  pre-eminent  social  im- 
portance in  the  colony  of  New  York,  partly  in  virtue  of  merits  all  his 
own,  and  partly  from  the  vast  wealth  and  political  importance  of  his 
father,  long  a  representative  in  the  General  Assembly  of  the  colony, 
and  proprietor  by  hereditary  title  of  the  Yonkers  plantation,  the  whole 

*  Annals,  354-358 ;   175-181 ;   194. 


47°  APPENDIX. 

manor  of  Philipsburg,  in  Westchester  county,  with  the  Upper  Highland 
patent  of  Philipstown,  in  Putnam  county.* 

During  his  studies  of  divinity  young  Blackwell  apparently  kept  up 
some  of  those  studies  in  medicine  and  surgery  which  he  began,  as  we 
have  supposed,  at  an  earlier  date.  It  is  plain,  from  several  evidences, 
that  Mr.  Blackwell  had  considerable  taste  for  the  natural  sciences.  We 
know,  by  what  we  remember  of  him,  that  he  was  fond  of  horticulture, 
both  the  elegant  branches  of  it  and  those  merely  useful,  as  he  was  also 
of  the  culture  of  the  finer  varieties  of  fruit-trees.  His  garden,  attached 
to  his  city  residence,  was  one  of  the  largest  in  Philadelphia;  even  in  its 
earlier  days,  and  up  to  the  very  close  of  his  long  life,  it  afforded  to  him, 
in  the  rich  collection  both  of  plants  and  of  fruits  with  which  he  had 
stocked  it,  an  unfailing  source  of  interest.  His  library,  too,  which  came 
to  his  grandchildren  undispersed,  has  its  very  good  collection  of  theo- 
logical and  classical  books,  largely  varied  by  books  of  the  physical 
sciences,  and  especially  by  books  on  materia  medica,  therapeutics  and 
surgery.     It  is  obvious,  too,  that  their  owner  read  them. 

The  first  mention  which  I  have  found  of  Mr.  Blackwell  in  connection 
with  the  sacred  ministry  is  in  a  letter  from  Dr.  Auchmuty  to  the  vener- 
able Richard  Peters,  D.  D.,  at  this  time  Rector  of  the  United  Churches 
in  Philadelphia.     We  give  an  extract: 

New  York,  Sept.  the  2d,  1771. 
Rev.  and  Dear  Sir  : 

The  purpose  of  this  letter  is  to  introduce  to  your  friendship  and  countenance  the 

bearer  of  it,  Mr.  Blackwell,  a  serious,  good  young  man.     He  has  been  reading  divinity 

for  some  time,  and  I  think  I  may  venture  to  say  that  though  he  is  not  very  showy,  yet 

he  will  make  a  solid  and  good  parish  minister.     If  you  Philadelphians  are  zealous  in 

supplying  Gloucester,  I  know  of  no  one  who  would  suit  for  that  mission  so  well.f    He 

is  a  single  man,  and  at  his  first  setting  off  a  small  income  will  suffice  him.     He  intends 

a  jaunt  beyond  Philadelphia,  to  explore  the  country  and  see  if  there  are  any  vacancies. 

He  is  solicitous  to  be  employed,  and  we  have  no  employment  here  for  him.     He  will 

*  A  large  part  of  the  estates  of  which  we  have  spoken  came  to  the  Colonel  Philipse 
in  whose  family  Mr.  Blackwell  was  domesticated.  But,  on  account  of  his  loyalty  to 
the  Crown  during  the  war  for  independence,  these  and  all  his  other  estates  were  con- 
fiscated by  the  Legislature  of  New  York,  and  upon  the  withdrawal  of  the  British 
troops  from  that  State,  in  1783,  Colonel  Philipse  went  to  England,  where  he  died  in 
the  city  of  Chester,  A.  D.  1785. 

f  The  mission  at  Gloucester,  established  by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  a.  d.  1766,  had  recently  (a.  d.  1767)  become  vacant  by  the 
death  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Evans,  who  had  been  appointed  missionary  there  as  far 
back  as  1765.  In  1769  the  mission  seems  to  have  been  offered  to  "  Mr.  Lyon,  of  Taun- 
ton." I  am  not  aware  that  he  performed  any  duty.  In  1770,  or  early  in  1 77  r ,  Mr. 
David  Griffith — the  same  person  who  was  elected,  in  May,  1786,  Bishop  of  Virginia, 
but  relinquished  the  appointment — filled  it  for  a  short  time,  but  was  never  fixed  there. 


APPENDIX.  47 1 

be  recommended  by  the  clergy  here  and  Colonel  Philipse;  and  the  recommendation 
will  be  no  more  than  he  deserves.  1  can  easily  procure  him  a  letter  from  Governor 
Tryon  to  Governor  Martin,  but  would  choose,  as  North  Carolina  is  a  bad  climate,  that 
he  should  be  more  happily  situated,  as  he  is  a  good  young  man  and  deserves  any  good 
offices  that  the  clergy  can  do  for  him.*  I  think  it  would  be  worth  while  once  more  to 
try  to  establish  the  mission  at  Gloucester  (as  it  is  so  contiguous  to  your  city),  if  there 
is  the  least  prospect  of  success;  and  I  know  of  no  young  man  that  in  my  opinion 
will  do  more  to  gain  the  love  and  esteem  of  any  people  than  the  bearer,  lie  is  a 
lump  of  good  nature,  and  very  diligent  when  he  has  anything  to  do. 

I  am,  dear  sir, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

S.  AUCHMUTY. 

Attached  to  the  mission  at  Gloucester,  as  would  seem,  was  the  very 
ancient  Parish  of  St.  Mary's,  Colestown,  in  old  Gloucester  county,  ten 
miles  north  of  the  town  of  Gloucester.  And  apparently  on  Dr.  Auch- 
muty's  suggestion,  Dr.  Peters  (with  whom  perhaps  was  Dr.  Smith)  set 
measures  on  foot  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  mission. 

The  mission,  as  denned  by  the  society  and  left  by  Mr.  Evans,  covered 
a  territory  of  about  sixty  miles  long  by  thirty  wide,  and  a  population 
of  six  thousand  persons,  of  whom  more  than  half  were  Quakers,  the 
residue  being  people  of  the  churches  of  England  and  Sweden,  Luther- 
ans and  Presbyterians,  all  in  about  equal  numbers.  There  was  a  church, 
St.  Mary's,  at  Colestown  (founded,  it  is  said,  about  the  year  1740 — 
very  ancient,  certainly — still  standing),  and  in  1766  the  two  congrega- 
tions took  a  house  with  twelve  acres  of  land  for  a  parsonage,  on  a  lease 
of  five  years. 

The  mission  was  now  agreed  to  be  re-established  ;  the  people  at 
Cole's  church  promising  verbally  to  pay  to  the  support  of  the  minister 
a  portion  of  the  expenses.  Up  to  this  date  Mr.  Blackwell  had  not 
been  ordained  even  as  a  deacon.  Before  going  to  England  for  holy 
orders,  he  was  desirous  of  seeing  where  he  could  fix  himself  with  cer- 
tainty on  his  return,  as  a  parish  minister.  In  addition  to  which  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  into  whose  service  as  a  mis- 
sionary he  proposed  to  enter,  usually  required,  before  establishing  a 
mission,  that  the  people  where  it  was  to  be  established  should  agree  to 
contribute  a  certain  sum  towards  sustaining  it.  The  merely  verbal 
agreement — probably  undefined  both  as  to  persons  and  amounts — led 
to  the  letter  which  follows,  from  Mr.  Blackwell  to  the  clergy  at  Phila- 
delphia who  were  desirous  to  re-establish  the  mission.     It  is  singularly 

*  His  Excellency,  William  Tryon,  was  at  this  time  "  Captain-General  and  Governor 
of  New  York  and  the  Territories  depending  thereon  in  America,  Chancellor  and  Vice- 
Admiral  of  the  same." 


47 2  APPENDIX. 

characteristic  of  its  author,  as  subsequently  known  during  a  long  life 
and  in  transactions  of  much  larger  scope;  direct,  candid  and  kind;  but 
decided  in  tone  and  full  of  integrity  in  matters  of  money.  It  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Peters,  but  was  obviously  intended  for 
him  and  some  other  person;  probably  Dr.  Smith.     Thus  it  reads: 

Newtown,  L.  I.,  April  20,  1772. 
Reverend  Gentlemen  : 

I  have  received  your  letter  in  answer  to  what  Mr.  Griffith  wrote  to  Dr.  Peters  at  my 
request  concerning  the  mission  at  Cole's  church,  though  the  answer  is  not  so  plain  and 
full  as  I  could  wish  it. 

You,  gentlemen,  are  very  sensible  that  the  provision  made  in  that  parish  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  minister  is,  at  best,  but  very  small,  and  unless  he  could  get  the  whole  of  what 
the  people  promise  to  give,  I  am  sure,  though  I  am  a  single  man,  I  should  be  unable 
to  stay  among  them.  It  never  was  my  design  to  make  money  by  the  gospel.  I  always 
had,  as  I  hope,  far  better  views.  Yet  it  is  my  opinion  that  any  one  who  is  worthy  of 
that  honorable  and  sacred  character  is  also  worthy  of  a  comfortable  maintenance  from 
the  people  he  serves.  I  shall  accept  the  invitation  you  have  given  me,  but  I  have  one 
thing  to  request  of  you,  which  will  be  very  easily  performed  by  gentlemen  of  your  in- 
fluence; that  is,  that  you  will  settle  matters  in  such  a  manner  with  the  people  of  Cole's 
church  that  when  I  come  among  them  (if  it  be  God's  will  that  I  return  in  safety)  we 
may  have  no  dispute  about  the  payment  of  the  salary.  If  they  design  to  pay  me,  I 
cannot  conceive  why  they  are  so  fearful  of  giving  bonds ;  for  that  is  the  usual  way  of 
settling  among  us,  and  is  found  very  advantageous  in  its  effects.  It  leaves  no  room  for 
uneasiness  on  either  side;  each  know  what  they  have  to  depend  upon,  and  each  are 
contented  with  what  they  have  agreed  to. 

Gentlemen,  I  know  that  you  will  do  whatever  lies  in  your  power  for  the  good  of  the 
church.  I  rest  in  the  assurance  of  your  kind  endeavors.  I  return  you  my  sincere 
thanks  for  your  kind  wishes  towards  me  in  a  prosperous  voyage  and  quick  return. 

I  expect  to  sail  in  about  a  fortnight  in  the  ship  called  the  "  Duchess  of  Gordon," 
Captain  Winn,  commander.  I  should  have  gone  sooner,  but  our  spring  vessels  have 
just  returned.  Captain  Miller  has  sailed  for  London  some  lime  since;  but  I  had  only 
three  days'  notice,  so  that  I  was  unable  to  get  ready  to  go  with  him. 

Reverend  gentlemen,  I  remain  your  most  obedient  and  humble  servant, 

Robert  Blackwell. 

Eighteen  days  previous  to  the  date  of  this  letter,  Dr.  Auchmuty  had 
written  to  Dr.  Peters  : 

Blackwell  has  received  your  letters  and  is  now  preparing  for  his  voyage.  I  hope  he 
will  be  despatched  in  a  short  time.  We  shall  give  him  ample  testimonials.  He  is  a 
good  lad,  and  will  be  useful. 

On  Thursday,  the  eleventh  day  of  June,  1772 — that  day  being  the 
Feast  of  St.  Barnabas — he  was  in  England,  at  the  little  suburb  of 
London  called  Fulham;  and  at  a  "special  ordination,"  then  and  there 
held,  was,  by  the  then  Bishop  of  London,  the  excellent  Richard  Ter- 
rick,  "holding  a  special  ordination,  in  the  chapel  of  his  palace  at  the 


APPENDIX.  473 

said  Fulham,  admitted  into  the  Holy  Order  of  Deacons,  according  to 
the  manner  and  form  prescribed  and  used  by  the  Church  of  England." 

On  the  same  day  the  newly  ordained  deacon,  by  a  written  document, 
declared  that  he  would  "conform  to  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, as  it  is  now  by  law  established. "  He  then  received  the  Bishop 
of  London's  license  and  authority  to  perform  the  office  of  "a  minister 
in  Gloucester  county  or  elsewhere  within  the  Province  of  New  Jersey  in 
North  America."    On  the  14th  following  he  was  ordained  a  Priest. 

The  reports  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  For- 
eign Parts  now  came  to  our  aid.  An  abstract  of  the  report  for  the  year 
1774  says: 

Mr.  Robert  Blackwell,  missionary  at  Gloucester  and  Waterford,  acquaints  the  society 
that  he  performs  duty  not  only  at  Gloucester  and  Waterford  (which  latter  goes  by  the 
name  of  Cole's  Church)  but  also  at  Greenwich,  about  eighteen  miles  from  Waterford, 
where  there  is  a  new  church;  not  built  purposely  for  the  Church  of  England  (the  people 
at  that  time  having  no  hopes  of  a  missionary),  but  where  the  ministers  thereof  are  to 
have  the  preference,  and  which  Mr.  Blackwell  hopes  will  very  shortly  be  an  established 
church.* 

The  families  belonging  to  each  of  these  churches  were  about  forty  in 
number,  many  of  whom,  Mr.  Blackwell  notes,  "were  very  ignorant, 
particularly  in  respect  to  the  sacraments  as  living  in  the  midst  of 
Quakers,  and  destitute  of  the  means  of  instruction.  Appearances  were, 
however,  now  more  favorable,  and  Mr.  Blackwell  hopes,  by  God's 
blessing,  to  be  an  instrument  of  great  good." 

The  grounds  for  the  hope  expressed  by  Mr.  Blackwell  that  this  new 

*  The  "  new  church,"  to  which  Mr.  Blackwell  refers,  was  St.  Peter's  Church, 
Berkeley,  founded  and  endowed  A.  D.  1770,  by  Thomas  Clark.  It  was  not  incorpo- 
rated until  April  28,  1835,  when  it  received  the  charter-title  of  "  The  Rector,  Church 
Wardens  and  Vestrymen  of  St.  Peter's  Church  in  Berkeley."  We  find  it  in  former 
days  sometimes  called  "  the  church  at  Sand-town;  "  sometimes  the  church  at  Green- 
wich; and  of  later  days  "the  church  at  Clarksborough."  In  the  course  of  generations 
"  the  new  church  "  of  Dr.  Blackwell's  day  became  a  very  old  one.  It  was  resolved  to 
build  a  new  edifice;  and  the  village  of  Clarksborough,  which  had  grown  up  a  little  to 
the  east  of  the  church,  though  on  ground  originally  of  Thomas  Clark,  the  founder  of  the 
edifice,  being  the  residence  of  most  of  the  worshippers,  the  new  edifice  was  built  there; 
a  half  of  a  mile,  perhaps,  west  of  the  old  situation,  on  the  same  street  and  same  side 
of  it  with  the  old  one,  and  directly  opposite  to  the  parsonage.  On  Monday  morning, 
December  7,  1846,  the  venerable  structure  of  Dr.  Blackwell's  day  was  reverently  torn 
down,  and  on  the  17th  of  the  same  month  the  new  one  was  consecrated  by  Bishop 
Doane,  under  the  charter  name  of  "  St.  Peter's  Church,  Berkeley,"  in  Clarksborough. 
It  is  agreeable  to  know  that  under  the  faithful  and  judicious  pastoral  care  of  the  Rev. 
Jesse  V.  Burk  it  is  at  this  time  one  of  the  best  ordered,  flourishing  and  useful 
parishes  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 


474  APPENDIX. 

church,  "not  built  purposely  far  the  Church  of  England,"  would  very 
shortly  become  an  established  church  are  interestingly  disclosed  in  an 
ancient  manuscript  book,  placed,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  rector  of 
the  church,  in  my  hands  by  Mr.  William  Morris  Cooper,  of  New 
Jersey. 

It  seems  that  there  being,  prior  to  Dr.  Blackwell's  taking  charge  of 
it,  no  prospect  of  any  clergyman  of  the  church  entering  upon  the  cure, 
the  church  edifice,  though  built  chiefly  by  contributions  from  members 
of  the  Church  of  England,  had  not  been  built  by  them  exclusively;  but 
that  "Methodists" — hardly  yet  fully  separated  from  the  church — had 
assisted  to  build  it,  with  an  understanding  that  their  ministers  might 
preach  in  it,  and  that  they  themselves  might  use  it  for  their  meetings. 
This  was  not  agreeable  to  Dr.  Blackwell,  who,  "though  he  highly  re- 
spected the  character  and  motives  of  persons  that  composed  other  religious 
denominations,  honored  their  piety  and  zeal,  had  the  utmost  affection 
for  their  persons,  and  was  ever  active  in  reciprocating  the  endearing 
charities  of  social  life,  thought  it  best,  for  the  good  not  less  of  other 
religious  bodies  than  of  his  own,  that  their  religious  operations  should 
be  kept  distinct." 

The  church  at  Greenwich  was  not  incorporated,  but  by  its  deed  of 
foundation,  dated  November  29,  1770,  was  placed  under  the  control 
of  certain  managers.  They  were  now,  by  Dr.  Blackwell's  influence, 
assembled,  and  at  a  "regular  meeting,  held  by  appointment,  June  30, 
1774,"  this  preamble  and  these  regulations  were  agreed  to: 

1st.  Whereas,  It  appears  to  the  managers  of  this  church,  from  sundry  good  reasons, 
that  it  would  be  for  the  advancement  of  religion  and  piety,  as  well  as  productive  of  the 
most  salutary  consequences,  that  the  said  church  should  be  the  property  of  some  one 
particular  denomination  or  sect  of  Christians  :  And  as  it  appears  from  the  subscription- 
paper  that  by  far  the  greatest  part  of  the  monies  laid  out  on  said  building  was  given  by 
persons  who  professed  themselves  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  still  desire 
that  this  may  be  an  Established  church  :  We  do  therefore  agree  that  it  shall  be  so ; 
and  from  the  date  hereof  this  House  be  an  Established  Church,  according  to  the 
Establishment  of  that  part  of  Great  Britain  called  England,  and  further  that  it  may  bi 
included  in  a  charier  with  the  church  at  Waterford  and  that  which  is  to  be  built  at 
Gloucester. 

2d.  That  if  any  person  be  dissatisfied  with  the  above  order  of  the  managers,  he,  she 
or  they,  by  applying  personally  to  Thomas  Clark,  Esq.,  any  time  in  the  month  of  Oc- 
tober next,  and  only  then,  and  letting  him  know  they  did  not  subscribe  for  an 
Established  church,  neither  are  they  willing  that  their  money  should  remain  for  that 
use,  may  have  their  subscriptions  refunded. 

3d.  We  further  agree  that  no  person  whatsoever  preach  in  this  house  except  the 
clergy  of  the  Church  of  England ;  unless  he  first  obtain  leave  under  the  hand  of  Dr. 
Bodo  Otto,  Jr.,  whom  we  appoint,  during  our  pleasure,  to  inspect  into  the  morals  and 
abilities  of  such  persons  as  shall  desire  to  preach  in  said  church,  and  to  approve  or 
disapprove  of  them  as  he  thinks  fit. 


APPENDIX.  475 

4th.  We  do  appoint  Mr.  Gabriel  D.  Veber  to  keep  the  key  of  said  church;  and  it 
is  our  desire  that  he  open  the  church  to  no  other  preachers  but  such  as  have  been 
agreed  upon. 

5th.  That  there  be  no  private  meetings  for  Divine  service  in  said  church,  but  that 
the  doors  be  open  for  persons  of  every  denomination  who  behave  themselves  with 
decency  and  good  order,  and  desire  to  hear  our  preaching. 

6lh.  That  when  there  be  an  appointment  by  a  minister  of  our  clergy,  there  be  no 
other  on  that  day  but  such  as  he  shall  please  to  make. 

7th.  Ordered  that  these  resolutions  be  published  in  said  church  immediately  after 
Divine  service;  that  they  may  be  known  to  the  people:  and  that  they  be  entered  in 
the  Greenwich  Church-book. 

Robert  Blackwell,  one  of  the  Managers,  and 

Clerk  to  the  said  meeting. 
Present — Timothy  Clark,  Isaac  Inskeep,  Thomas  Thomson,  Samuel  Tonkin,  Jon- 
athan Chew,  Gabriel  D.  Veber,  Bodo  Otto,  Jr. 

Greenwich,  July  31,  1774. 
This  day  the   above   resolves   were   published,  according    to    the    order    of   the 
Managers,  by  me. 

Robert  Blackwell. 

Greenwich,  Sept.  13,  1774. 
At  an  appointed  meeting  of  the  Managers  of  Greenwich  Church,  with  Mr.  Rankins, 
Superintendent  of  the  Methodists  in  these  parts,  and  several  of  the  heads  of  them, 
living  in  Greenwich,  it  was  agreed  that  the   Regulations  made   by  the   Managers  on 
June  30,  1774,  shall  be  observed  by  each  party. 

Robert  Blackwell. 

In  1775  Mr.  Blackwell  writes  to  the  English  society  in  whose  em- 
ployment he  was,  that  the  congregation  at  each  of  his  churches  is 
somewhat  increased,  though  he  lost  one  of  his  best  families  by  emigra- 
tion. At  Easter  his  communicants  at  Waterford  were  six,  and  at 
Greenwich  twenty-five. 

In  1776  he  writes  of  the  great  difficulty  he  has  in  settling  a  mission 
in  the  general  disturbance,  and  gives  no  very  promising  account  of  his 
congregation. 

An  abstract  of  the  society's  report  for  the  next  year  (1777)  says  of 
the  Gloucester  mission,  that  "all  is  in  confusion." 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  a  mission  whose  chief  seat  was 
Gloucester,  in  New  Jersey,  should  be  all  in  confusion  a.  d.  1777,  that 
year  memorable  there  and  in  all  the  country  round  about  as  the  year  of 
the  assault  by  Count  Donop  on  Fort  Mercer,  at  Red  Bank,  and  of  the 
terrific  siege  of  Fort  Mifflin;  of  the  marching  and  countermarching 
under  the  Earl  of  Cornwallis,  and  General  Varnum,  and  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  and  General  Maxwell,  of  hostile  armies;  and  of  constant  naval 
engagements  in  the  Delaware,  one  of  the  severest  having  been  just 
below  Gloucester,  October  23,    1777,  when   the   "Augusta"  and  the 


4?6  APPENDIX. 

"Merlin" — British  ships  of  war — encountering  our  navy,  exploded  in 
the  midst  of  the  engagement. 

What  part  in  the  rupture  of  the  British  Empire  Mr.  Blackwell  took, 
may  be  surmised  from  the  part  which  we  have  already  said  was  taken 
by  his  father,  Col.  Jacob  Blackwell,  in  New  York,  and  from  the  indig- 
nities and  injury  suffered  by  him  from  the  British  invaders  on  Long 
Island.  The  mission  at  Gloucester  was  of  course  at  an  end.  The 
Church  of  England  in  America  had  been  laid  prostrate  by  the  war. 
Not  to  be  useless  in  his  sacred  office,  Mr.  Blackwell  joined  the  Ameri- 
can army  as  a  Chaplain.  He  had  preached  before  it,  however,  anterior 
to  his  official  connection  with  it.  The  venerable  annalist  of  Phila- 
delphia, John  Fanning  Watson,  in  a  letter  before  me,  dated  June  23, 
1854,  says: 

Dr.  Robert  Blackwell  was  once  settled  as  a  minister  at  an  Episcopal  church  between 
Haddonfield  and  Mount  Holly,*  and  while  there  preached  a  sermon  to  the  American 
troops  at  Haddonfield,  as  was  once  told  me  by  an  elderly  lady,  one  of  his  parishioners, 
who  said  it  was  much  approved. 

Mr.  Blackwell  followed  the  fortunes  of  our  war  through  the  gloomy 
winter  of  1777-78,  exercising  the  double  office  of  both  Chaplain  and 
Surgeon  to  the  suffering  troops  at  the  Valley  Forge.  An  original  cer- 
tificate in  the  handwriting  of  Brigadier-General  Anthony  Wayne  thus 
testifies  to  the  fact,  and  shows  that  the  surgical  attainments  of  his 
youth  came — though,  probably,  in  a  way  little  anticipated  by  him  when 
acquiring  them — to  excellent  and  most  Christian  results.    It  thus  reads: 

I  do  certify  that  Dr.  Robert  Blackwell  was  Chaplain  to  the  First  Pennsylvania 
Brigade,  and  Surgeon  to  one  of  the  regiments  in  the  year  1778,  and  that  he  took  and 
subscribed  the  oath  as  directed  by  Congress  before  me  at  the  Valley  Forge,  in  common 
with  other  officers  of  the  Line. 

Given  at  Philadelphia,  this  10th  October,  1783. 

Anthony  Wayne,  B.  G. 
[Endorsed  in  Dr.  Blackwell's  handwriting.] 
General  Wayne's  Certificate  that  R.  B.  hath  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance. 

We  have  no  record  testimony  how  long  Dr.  Blackwell's  connection 
with  the  army  continued.  As  he  was  with  it  both  as  Chaplain  and 
Surgeon — "an  officer  of  the  Line" — in  the  year  1778,  and  at  the  Valley 
Forge,  we  may  assume,  almost  with  certainty,  that  he  followed  it  on  its 
sudden  departure  from  Pennsylvania  to  overtake  the  flying  British, 
and  was  with  it  at  Monmouth,  and  afterwards.  Indeed,  in  the  absence 
of  anything  whatever  to  show  that   he  left  it  before,  the  presumption 

*  Cole's  Church  answers  this  description. 


APPENDIX.  477 

would  be  that  he  stayed  with  it  until  the  beginning  of  1780,  on  the  17th 
of  January,  in  which  year  he  was  married.     On   the  23d  of  October, 

1780,  his  father,  Colonel  Jacob  Blackwell,  died,  and  on  the  26th  of 
March,  1781,  he  was  residing  "near  Philadelphia,"  and  then  for  the 
first  time,  so  far  as  we  see,  since  the  breaking  up  of  his  mission  and  his 
joining  the  army,  ready  to  enter  into  ordinary  parochial  work. 

By  the  demise  of  his  father,  at  the  date  above  mentioned — October 
23,  1780 — Dr.  Blackwell  succeeded  to  the  possession  of  considerable 
real  estate  in  the  East  river  and  on  Long  Island,  just  opposite  to  New 
York.  An  immense  increase  in  its  value,  in  connection  with  property 
which  passed  to  him  in  marriage,  assisted  to  make  him  what  for  forty 
years  and  more  before  his  death  he  was;  not  only  the  richest  of  the 
Episcopal  clergy  in  the  United  States,  but  one  of  the  richest  men  of  his 
day  in  Philadelphia. 

Dr.  Blackwell  remained  without  a  parochial  cure,  so  far  as  we  know 
— though  no  doubt  preaching  frequently  where  an  opportunity  for  being 
useful  offered  itself — until  the  year  1781.  In  the  spring  of  that  year 
began  that  connection  with  the  United  Churches  which  associates  his 
name  inseparably  with  their  history ;  a  connection  long  and  honorable 
to  him,  and  beneficent  to  them.*  It  remained  of  an  official  sort  till 
181 1,  and  constant  and  ecclesiastical,  though  not  official,  till  1831 — a 
term  of  half  a  century;  Bishop  White  during  the  whole  time  being 
Rector  of  the  two  churches. 

The  situation  of  the  United  Churches  as  respected  political  matters, 
when  Dr.  Blackwell  was  called  to  them,  in  1781,  was  delicate.  It  re- 
quired great  discretion  on  the  part  of  their  clergy,  and  conduct  that 
should  be  at  once  conciliatory  and  controlling,  to  keep  the  congrega- 
tions in  anything  like  ancient  steadiness  and  place.  The  Church  of 
England  had  never  been  strong  in  Pennsylvania.  Outside  of  Philadel- 
phia its  settled  clergy  had  not  been  more  than  six.  During  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  some  had  returned  to  England, |  and  some  had  died. 
In  1 781  they  numbered  only  three:  Mr.  White,  Mr.  Magaw,  Rector 
of  St.  Paul's,  and  Mr.  Blackwell.  The  body  of  worshippers  in  the 
United  Churches — that  is  to  say,  the  worshippers  most  influential  in 
point  of  education,  wealth,  social  standing  and  moral  worth,  had  not 
been  inclined  to  the  Revolution,  and  had  reluctantly  acquiesced  in  it. 

*  His  engagement,  which,  at  the  first,  was  "to  assist  Mr.  White  on  Sundays,"  began 
on    Easter   Day,  April    14,  1781.     At  a  meeting  of  the  Vestry,  held   September   19, 

1781,  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  "an  Assistant  Minister  of  Christ  Church  and  St. 
Peter's,"  he  was  unanimously  elected  to  be  such. 

■j-  Dr.  Duche,  Mr.  Coombe,  Dr.  Alexander  Murray,  Mr.  Thomas  Barton,  and  I  sup- 
pose others,  returned  to  England. 


478  APPENDIX. 

Some  of  these  were  disposed  to  give  but  slender  support  to  churches 
which  acknowledged  a  new  allegiance,  and  bo.h  whose  officiating  min- 
isters had  been  officially  in  the  service  of  either  the  Congress  or  the 
army.  But  the  class  called  "the  hot  Whigs"  were  more  difficult  yet 
to  manage.  They  were  intolerant  and  bitter ;  and  they  were  glad  to 
see  excluded  and  departing  from  the  churches  every  one  who  had  not 
been  violent  in  the  cause  of  the  Revolution,  and  who  was  not  as  vindic- 
tive as  themselves.  No  men  but  men  like  Dr.  White  and  Dr.  Blackwell, 
both  of  them  gentlemen  by  birth — both  of  unquestioned  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  independence,  and  whose  conduct  was  marked  by  decision, 
candor,  toleration,  discretion  and  suavity  of  manner — could  have  kept 
such  elements  of  discord  from  breaking  forth  into  political  animosities 
which,  in  the  then  state  of  the  United  Churches,  would  have  been  fatal 
to  the  prosperity,  and  indeed  perhaps  to  the  existence  of  the  parishes. 
But  the  men  were  suited  to  the  time  as  completely  as  they  harmonized 
with  each  other.  The  parishes  remained  united  in  fact  as  in  name — 
united  to  each  other  and  united  in  themselves.  The  churches,  largely 
depopulated  for  some  time  after  the  occupation  of  the  city  by  the  Brit- 
ish army,  thus  reacquired  by  degrees  their  ancient  numbers. 

Dr.  Blackwell  was  ever  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  the  various  and,  as 
before  long  they  became,  onerous  duties  which  they  imposed  upon  him. 

For  thirty  years  he  performed  steadily  or  assisted  to  perform  divine 
service  and  to  preach,  not  only  twice  a  day  on  Sundays,  but  to  perform 
service  also  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  and  upon  the  festivals  and 
fasts  recognized  more  particularly  in  the  church ;  upon  all  of  which 
days  both  Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's,  in  accordance  with  what  is 
contemplated  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  were  opened,  as  they 
also  daily  were  in  the  holy  season  of  Lent,  for  divine  service.  Regard- 
ing the  "Catechism"  as  an  admirable  compend  of  the  Church's  doctrine 
and  teachings,  and  looking  at  the  Church's  teachings  as  ever  better  than 
his  own,  he  was  never  neglectful  of  the  rubric  which  makes  it  the  duty 
of  the  minister  of  every  parish  diligently  upon  Sundays  and  Holy  Days, 
or  on  some  other  convenient  occasion,  openly,  in  the  church,  to  instruct 
or  examine  so  many  children  of  his  parish  sent  unto  him  as  he  should 
think  convenient,  in  some  part  of  that  excellent  compend.  And  there 
yet  survive  those  who  recall  with  animated  feelings  his  venerable  figure 
and  his  air  of  sweet  and  paternal  dignity  as  he  would  move  before 
the  lines  of  little  people  arranged  on  both  sides  of  the  middle  aisle  of 
Christ  Church  or  St.  Peter's;  his  Prayer  Book,  with  his  gold  spectacles, 
in  one  hand,  while  the  other,  left  free,  he  would  put,  with  affectionate 
commendation,  upon  the  head  of  some  little  innocent  who  seemed  to 
need  encouragement  or  to  deserve  commendation.    His  private  Registry 


APPENDIX.  479 

of  Baptisms,  Marriages  and  Burials,  in  the  archives  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  our  State,  and  carefully  treasured  by  it  as  among  its  more 
precious  possessions,  exhibits  a  large  amount  of  duties  faithfully  per- 
formed for  every  class,  including  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant.  And 
they  were  all  as  faithfully  recorded. 

In  parishes  having  a  circuit  so  wide  as  had  those  of  the  United 
Churches  in  Dr.  Blackwell's  day,  and  with  parishioners  so  numerous, 
the  discharge  of  such  external  duties  as  make  part  of  every  clergyman's 
office,  imposed  upon  both  their  ministers  constant  labor  and  many 
duties  requiring  the  best  qualities  of  a  pastor's  character.  All  these,  in 
Dr.  Blackwell's  case,  were  called  into  special  requisition  during  those 
visitations  of  contagious  pestilence  which  desolated  Philadelphia  on 
more  than  one  occasion  during  his  ministry,  and  one  of  which  came 
near,  by  his  fidelity  to  his  parochial  duties,  to  involve  his  own  life. 
Dreadful  as  have  been  the  visitations  of  the  Yellow  Fever  of  late  times  in 
the  southern  parts  of  the  United  States,  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
more  dreadful  than  those  visitations  of  it  under  which  Philadelphia 
came  in  1793  and  1797.  The  visitation  of  1793  was  perhaps  the  most 
alarming.  A  letter  before  us  from  an  eminent  physician  of  Philadelphia 
to  a  friend  thus  speaks  of  it : 

Though  every  one  is  not  confined,  yet  from  the  general  diffusion  of  the  contagion 
through  every  street  in  the  city,  nobody  is  perfectly  well.  One  complains  of  giddi- 
ness; one  of  headache;  another  of  chills;  others  of  pains  in  the  back,  or  stomach;  and 
all  have  more  or  less  quickness  of  pulse  and  redness  or  yellowness  in  the  eyes.  No 
words  can  describe  the  distress  which  pervades  all  ranks  of  people,  from  the  combined 
operations  of  fear,  grief,  poverty,  despair  and  death.  .  .  .  Never  can  1  forget  the  awful 
sight  of  mothers  wringing  their  hands,  fathers  dumb  for  awhile  with  fear  and  appre- 
hension, and  children  weeping  aloud  before  me;  all  calling  upon  me  to  hasten  to  the 
relief  of  their  sick  relations.  This  is  but  a  faint  picture  of  the  distress  of  our  city.  It 
is  computed  that  one  hundred  persons,  on  an  average,  have  been  buried  every  day 
for  the  last  eight  or  ten  days.  The  sick  suffer,  not  only  from  the  want  of  physicians, 
bleeders,  nurses  and  friends,  but  from  want  of  the  common  necessaries  of  life.  Five 
physicians,  four  students  of  medicine,  and  three  bleeders  have  died  of  the  disorder. 
But  the  mortality  falls  chiefly  on  the  poor,  who,  by  working  in  the  sun,  excite  the  con- 
tagion into  activity.  Whole  families  of  these  have  been  swept  away  by  it.  .  .  .  The  former 
sources  of  charity  in  money  are  dried  up  or  carried  into  the  country.  There  is  little 
credit  now  given  for  anything.  Every  service  to  the  sick  is  purchased  at  a  most  ex- 
orbitant rate.  The  price  of  bleeding  is  seven  shillings  and  sixpence,  and  nurses'  wages 
are  three  dollars  and  three  dollars  and  a  half  per  day.  Families  who  lived  by  the 
daily  labor  of  journeymen  or  day  laborers  suffer  greatly  from  the  death  of  persons  by 
whom  alone  their  daily  wants  were  supplied.  My  heart  has  been  rent  a  thousand 
times,  in  witnessing  distress  from  that  cause  as  well  as  from  sickness.  I  have,  in  vain, 
endeavored  to  relieve  it.  The  resources  of  a  prince  would  not  have  relieved  one-half 
of  it.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  wealthy  are  at  last  affected.  Mr.  Van  Berkle,  Mr.  Powel, 
Mrs.  Blodget  and  Mrs.  Clymer  are  at  present  confined  by  it.  Mr.  Van  Berkle  is  in 
danger.     Continue,  my  dear  friend,  to  pray  for  our  distressed  and  desolated  city. 


48O  APPENDIX. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  scenes  like  these  that  Dr.  Blackwell,  with  his 
fearless  rector  and  associate,  Bishop  White,  was  most  active.  Advising 
their  parishioners  everywhere  to  flee  to  places  of  safety,  neither  was 
willing  himself  to  leave  Philadelphia  for  a  day.  Dr.  Blackwell  was  not 
unfamiliar  with  spectacles  of  terror.  For  a  long  and  dreadful  winter  he 
had  made  his  daily  and  nightly  rounds  through  the  hospitals  of  the 
Valley  Forge,  ministering  to  the  souls  and  bodies  alike  of  the  six  thou- 
sand sick  and  wounded  soldiers  who  were  there,  without  blankets  or 
clothes,  freezing  and  dying  in  the  wards.  He  saw,  in  the  new  scenes 
of  plague  and  pestilence,  only  new  work  which  his  Divine  Master  put 
now  before  him.  Clergy,  not  the  Church's,  might  leave  the  city.  The 
Church,  by  solemn  rubric,  forbade  any  minister  of  Hers  to  do  so;  and 
though,  "for  fear  of  the  infection,"  the  whole  residue  of  the  parish 
should  flee,  and  no  neighbor  be  near,  he  was  to  remain,  and,  "upon 
special  request  of  the  diseased,  alone  to  communicate  with  him."  In 
his  combined  character  of  physician,  priest  and  man,  rich  in  this 
world's  goods,  the  entry  of  his  house  was  filled  night  and  day  with  ap- 
plicants for  aid  ;  and,  so  long  as  he  remained  unattacked  himself,  few 
went  away  without  some  benefit  from  their  application.  On  the  20th 
of  October,  1793,  having  endured  the  rage  of  the  pestilence  unharmed, 
at  a  moment  when  it  seemed  to  exhibit  some  signs  of  approaching  de- 
cline, he  was,  in  the  midst  of  his  active  efforts  to  relieve  others,  himself 
suddenly  stricken  down.  Fortunately,  he  was  taken  at  once  to  a 
country  residence,  near  Gloucester,  and  his  restoration,  for  some  time 
despaired  of,  ultimately  took  place;  though  his  constitution  never  re- 
covered perfectly  from  the  shock  of  this  attack. 

Dr.  Blackwell's  sermons  were  characterized  by  solid  sense,  abundant 
scholarship,  pious  feeling,  and  a  pervading  tone  of  purity  and  sweet- 
ness. On  occasions  and  in  passages  they  rose  to  high  solemnity. 
He  uttered  nothing  crude,  questionable  or  jejune.  In  conversa- 
tion with  the  writer  of  this  sketch,  the  late  Horace  Binney,  who  had 
known  him  from  childhood,  and  was  for  many  years  one  of  his  parish- 
ioners, spoke  of  them  "  as  to  him  never  uninteresting ;  "  a  higher  tribute 
than  which,  to  the  solidity  of  their  merits,  no  sermons  could  receive. 
Their  structure  had  little  of  the  arts  of  rhetoric.  His  voice  was  agree- 
able and  well  modulated,  but  neither  in  it  nor  in  his  gestures  was  there 
much  elocutionary  display.  He  addressed  himself  to  the  understand- 
ings, the  consciences  and  the  hearts  of  his  hearers;  and  the  effects 
which  he  produced  were  effects  which  endured,  and  to  this  day  bring 
forth  good  fruit. 

Dr.  Rufus  Wilmot  Griswold,  in  his  "Republican  Court,"  refers  to 
him  more  than  once  as  a  conspicuous  person  of  society  in  the  days  of 


APPENDIX.  48 1 

Washington.     After  speaking  of  him  as  "a  man  of  large  fortune,  fine 
appearance  and  singularly  pleasant  temper  and  manner,"  he  says: 

He  was  "  a  scholarly  and  sensible  preacher  of  the  English  University  cast.  His 
sermons,  of  the  homiletical  kind,  were,  like  those  of  the  higher  classes  of  the  English 
clergy  in  the  last  century,  calculated  for  educated  hearers  more  than  to  arouse  an  in- 
different or  slumbering  congregation." 

Dr.  Griswold  adds: 

Being  withal  a  man  of  unquestioned  piety  and  great  propriety  of  life,  he  maintained 
a  dignified  position,  and  was  extensively  deferred  to  by  an  opulent  And  worldly  class, 
who  would  probably  have  deferred  to  no  one  else  less  blessed  with  adventitious 
influence. 

At  the  distance  of  near  a  century  since  Dr.  Blackwell  was  called  to 
minister  in  them,  and  of  more  than  fifty  years  since  he  has  been  lying 
in  the  grave  beside  St.  Peter's,  it  is  interesting  to  look  at  the  condition 
of  the  United  Churches.  It  is  a  condition  which  testifies  in  part  of  his 
work,  and  of  what  sort  it  was. 

While  almost  all  the  Protestant  churches  which  existed  in  his  time  in 
the  eastern  part  of  Philadelphia  have  been  demolished,  or  delivered  over 
to  secular  and  sometimes  to  impious  uses,  the  old  United  Churches  re- 
main in  strength  and  usefulness,  and  are  likely  to  remain.  Their  ancient 
worshippers  have  disappeared;  but  worshippers  in  lines  of  straight  suc- 
cession still  crowd  their  sacred  aisles.  The  congregations  of  these  old 
churches  at  this  day  are  as  active  as  were  those  of  earlier  days  in  works 
of  charity  and  usefulness;  and  as  active  in  such  works  as  any  anywhere, 
or  of  the  newest. 

Nor  did  this  venerable  gentleman  confine  his  labors  to  offices  sacer- 
dotal or  clerical  only.  In  every  department  of  religion — indeed  in 
every  sphere  of  humanity  or  science  where  he  moved — he  verified,  un- 
consciously, the  prediction  which,  a.  d.  1770,  in  his  early  life  Dr. 
Auchmuty  made  of  him,  that  he  would  be  "useful." 

He  was  among  the  first  persons  who  set  themselves  at  work  to  re- 
establish the  Episcopal  Church  after  it  had  been  prostrated  by  the  war 
of  the  Revolution;  one  of  those  ten  clergymen  who,  with  six  laymen, 
met  May  n,  1784,  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. — he  having  been  the  per- 
son to  propose  that  time  and  to  approve  that  place,*  by  whom  were  set 
a-going  measures  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  "Continental  Represen- 

*  In  a  letter  I  received  from  Mr.  Blackwell  some  time  ago,  he  proposed  Tuesday, 
Ilth  May,  as  a  proper  time  for  the  meeting,  and  acquiesced  with  my  proposal  of 
Brunswick  for  the  place. — [Letter  of  the  Rev.  Abraham  Beach  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  White 
of  March  22d,  1 784,  in  Bishop  IV.  S.  Perry's  "Half  Century  of  Legislation  of  the 
American  Church"  Vol.  III.,  p.  9.) 

31 


4§2  APPENDIX. 

tation  "  of  the  church,  and  for  "the  better  management"  of  its  con- 
cerns. With  his  fellow-workers — Mr.  White,  Mr.  Beach,  Mr.  Magaw, 
Dr.  Smith  and  others — he  did  faithful  labor  in  this  behalf:  so  faithful 
and  with  such  success  that  in  one  year  afterwards,  1785,  a  convention 
of  seven  out  of  ten  of  the  States  where  the  church  was,  was  held,*  the 
first  in  the  series  of  those  great  conventions  which  still  continue  to 
represent  triennially  the  church  in  her  corporate  dignity,  and  which,  all 
may  pray,  may  continue  to  represent  her  in  the  future  with  as  much 
good  result  to  the  end  of  time. 

Of  the  first  convention  Dr.  Blackwell  was  a  member,  as  he  was  of  the 
convention  of  1786,  one  which  like  that  composed  representatives  from 
seven  States;  of  that  of  1789,  the  first  of  our  General  Conventions,  in 
the  sense  which  included  any  States  of  New  England  ;  and  of  those,  its 
successors,  of  1795,  of  1799,  of  1801,  of  1804  and  1808,  after  which 
date,  retiring  from  parochial  charge,  he  was  no  longer  eligible 
to  any. 

In  all  these  conventions  he  was  called  upon  for  active  service,  and 
placed  in  positions  showing  reliance  on  his  learning,  his  intelligence 
and  practical  wisdom.  In  the  General  Convention  of  1789  he  is  ap- 
pointed on  various  important  committees  ;  on  one  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  proposed  Constitution  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
and  to  recommend  such  alterations,  additions  and  amendments  as  the 
committee  should  think  necessary  and  proper;  on  another  to  prepare  a 
Morning  and  Evening  Service  for  the  use  of  the  church  ;  on  a  third  to 
report  what  further  measures  were  then  necessary  to  perpetuate  the 
succession  of  Bishops  in  America;  on  a  fourth  to  superintend  the 
printing  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  as  then  adopted  and  still  ex- 
isting; and  finally,  on  the  adjournment  of  the  body,  on  a  Standing 
Committee  to  act  during  the  recess  of  the  convention. f 

In  the  General  Convention  of  1792  he  is  again  appointed  a  member 
of  the  Standing  Committee ;f  appointed  also  on  the  Committee  for 
Carrying  into  Effect  an  act  or  plan  which  the  convention  had  previously 
passed  for  Supporting  Missions.  J 

In  the  convention  of  1795  we  find  him  presiding  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  to  take  into  consideration  the  General  State  of  the  Church  ; 
appointed  also  at  the  same  convention  on  a  joint  committee  of  the  two 
Houses,  "to  arrange  the  Canons  and  principal  papers  belonging  to  the 
Church ;  causing  them  to  be  fairly  transcribed  in  a  properly  bound  book, 

*This  convention  had  representatives  from  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia  and  South  Carolina. 

f  See  Minutes  of  July  30,  October  3,  October  15,  October  16,  1 789. 
\  See  Minutes  of  19th  September,  179? 


APPENDIX.  483 

in  order  that  they  may  be  faithfully  preserved  for  the  perpetual  use  of 
the  House  of  the  General  Convention  of  this  Church,  to  recur 
to  as  occasion  may  require;''  appointed  again  on  the  Standing 
Committee.* 

In  the  convention  of  1804  he  is  a  member  of  a  committee  "to  pre- 
pare an  office  of  Induction  in  the  Rectorship  of  Parishes;  "  Chairman 
of  a  committee  to  settle  "a  very  unhappy  difference,"  subsisting  be- 
tween the  Rev.  Uzal  Ogden,  D.  D.,  and  the  then  congregation  of  Trinity 
Church,  Newark,  which  appeared  to  threaten  the  existence  of  that 
church,  and  which  its  vestry  brought  before  the  convention,  asking  it 
"to  devise  some  means  for  their  relief;"  Chairman  "to  manage,  on 
the  part  of  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies,  a  Conference  with 
the  House  of  Bishops  on  certain  points  where  differences  of  opinion 
prevailed,"  but  where  perfect  harmony  was  arrived  at  by  patience  and 
learning  of  the  committees  of  the  respective  bodies. f 

He  was  Treasurer  both  of  General  conventions  and  of  State  conven- 
tions; his  plentiful  fortune  and  his  liberal  disposition  making  him  a 
very  acceptable  officer  in  situations  like  these  then  were,  and  still  are, 
where  funds  were  limited  and  demands  upon  them  large. 

For  fifty-nine  years  he  was  an  active  and  valuable  member  of  that 
beneficent  corporation,  now  so  opulent,  but  long  very  feeble,  and  for 
some  years  after  its  organization  scarce  existent,  "for  the  Relief  of  the 
Widows  and  Clergymen  in  the  Communion  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church;  "  becoming  a  member  of  it  a.  d.  1773,  and  ending  his  services 
to  it  only  with  his  life.  From  the  year  1803  until  1814  he  was  its 
Treasurer,  for  Pennsylvania.  As  late  as  1828  Bishop  White,  in  an 
address  to  the  convention  of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  his  State,  speaks 
of  the  assistance  which  that  "reverend  brother,  then  present,"  had 
rendered  to  him  "after  the  shock  received  by  the  fund  from  the  cur- 
rency at  the  Revolutionary  war,"  not  only  in  reorganizing  the  society, 
but  also  in  rescuing  the  remnant  of  the  fund  from  the  further  danger 
into  which  it  had  fallen.  He  was  a  Trustee  from  its  origin,  a.  d.  181 2, 
of  that  useful  institution  of  the  church  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Society  for 
the  Advancement  of  Christianity,  and  a  constant  contributor  to  its 
funds. 

He  was  a  Manager  of  "  The  Philadelphia  Dispensary,"  a  beneficent 
institution  established  a.  d.  1786,  and  still  beneficently  existing  for  the 
relief  of  the  indigent  sick,  and  early  and  long  a  contributor  to  its 
funds;  a  "Visitor" — personally  interesting  himself — of  the  incorporated 

*See  Minutes  of  September  12,  September  17,  September  18,  1795. 
f  See  Minutes  of  September  13,  September  15  and  September  18,  1804. 


4§4  APPENDIX. 

"Young  Ladies'  Academy  of  Philadelphia,"*  one  of  the  best  schools 
for  young  ladies  which  ever  existed  in  Philadelphia  ;  a  Trustee  of  the 
Episcopal  Academy  of  Philadelphia ;  a  Trustee  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania;  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society;  and 
one  of  the  Counsellors  ;\  a  member  of  the  Society  for  Political  Inquiries, 
a  society  established  a.  d.  1787,  and  composed  of  the  first  men  of  the 
nation,  and  of  such  alone,  or  chiefly. \  He  was  an  earnest  promoter 
of  that  important  institution  of  the  church,  The  General  Theological 
of  New  York,  and  by  his  testamentary  dispositions  gave  to  it  $2,500  to 
establish  in  it  a  scholarship^ 

In  1 810,  the  city  growing,  even  then,  rapidly  toward  the  west,  St. 
James's  Church,  in  Seventh  street  above  Market,  was  built  and  a  !ded 
to  the  ancient  parishes  as  one  of  the  United  Churches.  Dr.  Blackwell 
now  availed  himself  of  the  claims  of  advancing  years,  and  of  health  not 
longer  robust,  to  retire  from  official  connection  with  the  corporation, 
whose  enlarged  form  and  wide  circuit  seemed  likely  to  place  upon 
him  duties  that  were  more  suited  to  youthful  strength.  We  have 
in  the  records  of  the  United  Churches||  a  tribute  to  his  services  and 
worth  both  from  the  vestry  of  the  two  churches  and  from  the  venerable 
rector  of  them,  the  first  Bishop  of  this  diocese,  than  whom  no  one 
living  had  so  good  opportunities  of  knowing  Dr.  Blackwell's  usefulness 
and  virtue. 

The  Minutes  of  the  Corporation  record  that  on  the  18th  of  September, 
1810,  "the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  White  read  a  letter  which  he  had  written  to 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Blackwell,  and  Dr.  Blackwell's  answer  thereto."  The 
Resolution  mentioned  in  Bishop  White's  letter  had  been  passed  by  the 
Vestry  on  the  6th  of  August,  1810.     The  letter  and  answer  are  thus  : 

August  7,  1 8 10. 
Reverend  and  Dear  Sir  : 

Last  evening,  ngreeable  to  your  desire,  I  informed  the  Vestry  of  your  intended  re- 
signation, which  produced  the  request  expressed  in  the  Minutes  following: 

*  See  "  The  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Young  Ladies'  Academy,  at  Philadelphia." 
Philadelphia,  1794.      l2mo.,  pp.  I,  15,  1 1 7. 

f  January  19,  1 788. 

J  This  society  was  established  February  9,  1787,  and  was  limited  to  fifty  members. 
Dr.  Franklin,  Major  William  Jackson,  Francis  Hopkinson,  Samuel  Powel,  James  Wil- 
son, William  Bradford,  Jr.,  John  Nixon,  George  Clymer,  Jared  Ingersoll,  Thomas 
Fitzsimons,  Robert  Morris,  Edward  Shippen,  Edward  Tilghman,  Gouverneur  Morris, 
William  Bingham,  and  a  few  other  persons  were  members.  It  met,  except  in  the 
summer  months,  and  in  deference  to  his  age  and  eminence,  at  the  house  generally  of 
Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  its  President. 

$  The  Blackwell  Scholarship;  in  the  gift  of  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of 
Pennsylvania. 

||  S-e  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dorr's  History  of  Christ  Church,  py>.  2,2,1-223. 


APPENDIX.  485 

Augusts.  The  Right  Rev.  Dr.  White  informed  the  Vestry  that  ihe  Rev.  Dr.  Black- 
well  had  expressed  his  determination  to  decline  his  place  a^  Assistant  Minister  in  the 
United  Churches,  whenever  a  suitable  person  can  be  obtained  in  his  room.  It  was 
further  expressed  that  the  cause  of  his  resignation  was  occasional  indisposition  ;  but 
that  he  was  willing  to  continue  to  officiate  to  allow  sufficient  time  to  choose  another 
minisier.     Whereupon, 

Resolved,  That  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  White  be  requested  to  express  to  Dr.  Blackwell 
the  regret  with  which  the  Vestry  have  received  the  foregoing  intimation;  and  more 
particularly  for  the  cause  which  has  induced  it ;  and  that  he  at  the  same  lime  commu- 
nicate to  Dr.  Blackwell  the  sense  of  the  Vestry  of  the  services  rendered  by  him  in  the 
discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  acquaint  him  of  the  resolution  of  the  Vestry  to 
take  early  measures  for  releasing  him  from  his  station  by  the  election  of  a  successor. 

In  performing  the  duty  thus  laid  on  me  by  the  Vestry,  I  participate  in  the  respectful 
and  affectionate  sentiments  >vhich  they  have  expressed;  and  I  further  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  mentioning  that  during  whatever  may  remain  to  me  of  life,  I  shall  reflect  with 
satisfaction  on  the  harmony  which  has  subsisted  between  us,  and  the  friendly  inter- 
course in  which  we  have  trod,  through  so  long  a  space  of  time,  and  that  of  our  united 
parochial  ministry. 

With  my  best  wishes  and  my  prayers  for  your  happiness, 

I  remain,  Reverend  and  dear  sir, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Wm.  White. 
To  the  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D. 

[DR.  BLACKWELL'S  ANSWER.] 

Right  Reverend  and  Dear  Sir  : 

When  I  look  back  on  the  long  and  happy  connection  that  has  for  so  manv  years  sub- 
sisted between  us  us  ministers  of  the  United  Churches,  the  many  kind  attentions  you 
have  shown  me,  and  the  affectionate  behavior  I  have  always  experienced  from  you, 
you  may  be  assured  that  I  am  very  sensibly  affected  at  the  dissolution  of  a  connection 
so  happily  begun,  and  continued  so  long  with  such  uninterrupted  harmony  and  good 
will.  I  am  fully  persuaded  that  nothing  will  interrupt  the  friendly  understanding  that 
now  subsists  between  us ;  but  that,  as  we  pass  down  the  vale  of  years,  our  brotherly 
affection  will  know  no  change,  but  in  its  increase;  and  that,  as  we  draw  nearer  the 
close  of  life,  our  hopes  of  happiness  will  become  brighter  and  brighter. 

My  dear  sir,  you  will  please  to  express  to  the  Vestry  the  satisfaction  I  feel  at  the 
kind  and  friendly  notice  they  have  taken  of  my  past  services;  and  assure  them  that 
they  were  always  performed  with  a  willing  heart,  a  sincere  mind,  and  an  ardent  desire 
"hat  they  might  be  useful  and  acceptable  to  the  congregation. 

It  is  my  earnest  prayer  that  their  labors  in  promoting  the  interest  and  welfare  of  the 
United  Churches  may  be  crowned  with  full  success.  My  best  wishes  shall  ever  attend 
them. 

Right  reverend  and  dear  sir,  with  the  highest  esteem  and  veneration  for  your  many 
amiable  and  Christian  virtues,  and  with  the  sincerest  wishes  for  your  long  life,  health 
and  happiness, 

I  am  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

8th  August,  1810.  Robert  Blackwell. 

The  Right  Rev.  William  White,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 


486  APPENDIX. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  181 1,  the  Rev.  Jackson  Kemper  (afterwards  the 
first  Missionary  Bishop  of  the  West)  was  elected  an  Assistant  in  the 
place  of  Dr.  Blackwell;  and  we  fix  the  termination  of  Dr.  Blackwell's 
official  relation  to  the  United  Churches  from  that  day.  On  the  same 
day  the  Vestry  makes  this  request : 

The  Vestry  request  that  the  Church  Warden  present  their  thanks  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Blackwell  for  his  past  service,  and  at  the  same  time  express  their  hope  that,  notwith- 
standing his  resignation,  he  will  occasionally  favor  them  with  his  sermons  when  the 
Rector  or  either  of  the  Assistant  Ministers  may  request. 

In  the  year  1788  Dr.  Blackwell  received  from  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

Dr.  Blackwell  was  twice  married  : 

First,  January  17,  1780,  by  the  Rev.  William  White,  to  Rebecca 
Harrison,  daughter  of  Joseph  and  Ann  Harrison,  of  Gloucester  county, 
New  Jersey.  This  lady  died  February  25,  1782,  aged  25  years.  Family 
affection  has  preserved  an  old  manuscript  which  contains  an  account  of 
her  death  and  some  graceful  elegiac  lines  to  her  memory.  I  am  unable  to 
state  with  certainty  the  author  of  them.  They  have  been  attributed, 
not  without  some  probability,  to  the  accomplished  first  Provost  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia.  If  he  was  not  the  author  of  them,  it  is  difficult 
to  say  to  whom  in  Philadelphia  at  that  time  we  can  assign  them. 
Second,  November  2,  1783,  to  Hannah  Benezet,  relict  of  John  Benezet, 
Esq.,  and  daughter  of  William  and  Mary  Bingham.  This  lady  died 
December  16,  1815. 

No  issue  by  the  latter  marriage  survived.  By  the  former,  Dr.  Black- 
well  left  one  child,  a  daughter,  Rebecca  Harrison,  who  became,  No- 
vember 26,  1800,  the  wife  of  George  Willing,  of  Philadelphia. 

Dr.  Blackwell's  dwelling-house  in  Philadelphia  was  on  the  south  side 
of  Pine  street  below  Third,  and  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  church 
in  which  he  most  frequently  ministered.  At  the  distance  of  more  than 
a  century  from  the  time  of  its  erection  it  still  stands,  shorn,  indeed,  of 
its  spacious  and  well-kept  grounds,  but,  as  respects  the  house  itself,  ab- 
solutely unimpaired,  we  may  say,  in  solidity  or  even  in  appearance ;  a 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  superiority  of  its  materials  and  modes  of 
structure.  The  house,  its  occupant,  the  surrounding  houses,  and  the 
occupants  of  these,  made  in  their  day  so  considerable  a  feature  of  the 
city  that  the  local  historian  of  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Thompson  Westcott, 
in  a  chapter  devoted  to  "Notable  Mansions  in  the  City  built  between 
1750  and  1776,"  gives  us  quite  an  extended  mention  of  them.  He 
says : * 

*  History  of  Philadelphia,  chapter  ccxix. 


APPENDIX.  487 

In  the  year  1761  the  Proprietaries,  Thomas  and  Richard  Fcnn,  granted  the  whole 
front  on  Tine  street,  from  Second  to  Third,  being  four  hundred  and  t,ixty  feet  in  width 
by  one  hundred  and  two  feet  in  depth,  to  John  Stamper,  in  consideration  of  ^1100 
sterling  and  a  yearly  quit-rent  of  five  shillings.  Stamper  was  an  Englishman  who  had 
been  a  successful  merchant.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Common  Council  and  an  alder- 
man, and  in  1759  was  mayor  of  the  city.  After  the  purchase  from  the  Penns  he 
bought  forty  feet  of  ground  south  of  the  original  grant,  which  made  his  lot  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-two  feet  deep,  to  an  alley,  which  was  called,  after  him,  Stamper's  alley. 
At  this  time  Mr.  Stamper  lived  in  Second  street,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Stamper's 
alley.  Upon  this  large  lot  on  Tine  street  Mr.  Stamper  built,  some  time  before  the 
Revolution,  a  fine  three-story  brick  house,  which  was  formerly  No.  50,  and  which  is 
now  known  as  No.  224.  It  will  be  readily  distinguished  by  its  red  and  blue  glazed 
brick,  its  ancient  columnar  doorway,  and  its  low  steps.  The  cornice  and  dormer  win- 
dows are  fine  specimens  of  old-fashioned  woodwork.  The  interior  of  the  house  was 
finished,  according  to  the  taste  of  the  ante-Revolutionary  times,  with  elaborate  panel- 
ing, wainscoting,  surbases,  heavy  doors,  etc.,  which  still  remain.  The  stable  and 
coach-house  in  Stamper's  alley  are  also  still  standing.  Stamper  had  two  daughters. 
One  of  these — Mary  Stamper — married  William  Bingham  the  elder,  and  was  the 
mother  of  the  Hon.  William  Bingham,  afterwards  Senator  of  the  United  States,  whose 
properly  finally  went,  through  the  marriage  of  one  of  his  daughters,  to  the  English 
family  of  the  Barings.  Hannah,  the  other  daughter,  married,  in  second  marriage,  the 
Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  U.,  and,  upon  the  division  of  her  grandfather's  (Stamper's) 
estate,  this  fine  house,  running  to  within  about  thirty  feet  of  Third  street,  passed  into 
the  possession  of  Dr.  Blackwell,  who  was  one  of  the  ministers  of  Christ  Church  and 
St.  Peter's.  Dr.  Blackwell  lived  in  this  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  the  year 
1831 — nearly  half  a  century.  It  is  yet  one  of  the  best  specimens  of  stately  city  archi- 
tecture which  now  remains  in  Philadelphia. 

On  the  west  end  of  this  lot  Dr.  Blackwell,  before  the  marriage  of  his  only  daughter, 
Rebecca  Harrison  Blackwell,  with  George  Willing,  built  on  the  Pine  street  front  of 
the  lot  the  fine  house  formerly  No.  64,  now  No.  23S,  in  which  Mr.  Willing  long  lived, 
and  which  is  stiil  standing.  It  is  now  inhabited  by  the  Hon.  J.  R.  Burden.  It  was 
one  of  the  best  houses  of  the  modern  style,  with  chimneys  against  the  sides,  and  with 
folding-doors  in  the  middle  of  the  parlors.  The  garden  attached  to  Dr.  Blackwell's 
house  was  filled  with  flowers,  shrubbery  and  fruit  trees,  and  was  common  to  the 
Blackwell  and  the  Willing  families. 

At  the  southeast  corner  of  Pine  and  Third  streets  Mr.  Stamper  built,  before  the 
Revolution,  a  fine  house  for  his  son,  Joseph  Stamper,  on  the  occasion  of  his  marriage 
with  Miss  Sarah  Maddox,  the  granddaughter  of  Joshua  Maddox,  Esq.,  one  of  the 
Justices  of  the  Province.  Mrs.  Stamper,  who  survived  her  husband  for  many  years, 
remained  in  this  old  house  until  her  death,  which  occurred  about  the  year  1826.  The 
property  was  then  bought  by  Dr.  Philip  Syng  Physic,  who  pulled  down  the  old  house 
and  erected  on  the  lot  a  row  of  houses  facing  upon  Third  street,  which  are  still  stand- 
ing.    They  extended  from  Pine  street  to  Stamper's  alley. 

At  the  southwest  corner  of  Pine  and  Second  streets  another  house,  which  is  still 
standing,  was  built  about  the  year  1773,  and  was  long  owned  by  Dr.  Blackwell.  In 
this  house,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  there  dwelt  a  Mr.  Franklin,  and  here 
boarded,  during  this  period,  Elias  Boudinot,  LL.  D.,  at  one  time  President  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  Commissary  General  of  prisoners  during  the  Revolutionary  war, 
subsequently  member  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  finally  Director  of  the 


488  APPENDIX. 

Mint  under  President  Washington.  His  memory  is  specially  maintained  in  our  local 
annals  by  the  bequest  of  lands  bordering  on  the  Susquehanna  river,  which  he  made  to 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  trust  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  poor  housekeepers  with 
fuel. 


No.  II.— Page  64. 


William  Moore,  of  Moore  Hall,  and  his  Origin. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  Moore  family,  of  America,  the  first  of  whom 
I  have  any  information  is  Sir  John  Moore,  who  had  for  his  family  seat 
Fawley,  in  Berkshire,  England.  This  gentleman  was  passed  to  the 
order  of  Knighthood  by  Charles  I.,  King  of  England,  on  the  21st  day 
of  May,  1627;  probably  as  a  reward  for  some  important  services  ren- 
dered to  the  country  and  to  the  crown.  The  motto  on  his  coat  of  arms 
was:  "Nihil  utile  quod  non  honestum." 

He  was,  beyond  a  doubt,  a  monarchist  in  politics  and  a  churchman 
in  religion,  as  he  lost  both  his  fortune  and  his  life  in  those  revolutionary 
excitements— produced  more  by  a  blind  and  ignorant  religious  bigotry 
than  a  love  of  rational  liberty— which  deprived  the  unfortunate  monarch 
of  his  crown,  and  brought  him  to  an  ignominious  end  upon  the  scaffold. 
It  was  a  sacrifice  professedly  made  to  establish  the  rights  of  his  subjects, 
and  the  freedom  of  conscience  in  religion.  But  the  light  which  suc- 
ceeding events  have  thrown  upon  the  character  of  the  agents,  and  of  the 
sufferers  in  that  tragedy,  has  led  many  to  contemplate  it  as  a  case  of 
martyrdom  in  the  cause  of  God  and  his  church. 

Sir  John  Moore  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Sir  Francis  Moore, 
who  was  the  father  of  John  and  James  Moore,  who  came  to  America 
and  settled  in  South  Carolina  about  1680,  where  James  remained 
and  became  Governor  from  the  year  1700  until  1703,  when  he  was 
deposed. 

"Drake"  informs  us  that  in  1719  he  undertook  an  expedition  against 
Florida,  which  was  a  failure.  This  expedition-  caused  the  first  issue  of 
paper  money  in  America,  under  the  name  of  Bills  of  Credit. 

John  Moore,  it  appears,  came  with  his  wife  and  family  to  Philadel- 
phia some  time  prior  to  1700,  and  became  the  king's  collector  at  that 
port;  this  we  know  from  his  commission,  which  is  before  me,  dated 
1703,  signed  by  Evelyn,  etc.  He  had  several  children  when  he  came 
to  Philadelphia,  and  as  we  are  informed  by  his  will,  bearing  date  No- 
vember 16,  1 73 1,  had  seven  at  his  death. 


APPEXD/X.  489 

Upon  his  coming  to  Philadelphia  it  appears  he  bought  a  large  tract 
of  land  on  "ye  2ml  street,"  north  of  High  or  Market  street,  and  built 
his  family  residence  at  the  corner  of  a  small  street  running  from  Second 
to  the  river,  then  known  as  Gardener's  alley,  now  Coombe's.  He  was 
a  prominent  member  of  Christ  Church,  being  one  of  the  vestrymen  up 
to  the  time  of  his  death.  I  shall  now  give  such  an  account  of  his  chil- 
dren as  I  have  been  able  to  obtain.    His  wife's  name  was  Rebecca. 

His  eldest  son,  John  Moore,  was  born  in  Carolina,  in  1686;  and  at 
an  early  age  was  sent  to  England  to  receive  his  education,  and  upon 
his  return  to  America  settled  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  became  an 
eminent  merchant  of  that  city  in  colonial  times.  He  was  an  alderman, 
for  many  years  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  colonel  of  one  of  the  New  York  regiments,  and  a  member  of  the 
King's  council  for  the  province.  He  died  in  1749,  at  63  years  of  age. 
He  was  the  first  person  buried  in  Trinity  churchyard,  and  the  title  of 
the  family  vault  is  still  in  the  name  of  the  family. 

Mr.  John  Moore  married  Frances  Lambert,  and  was  blest  through 
her  with  eighteen  children,  among  whom  were  three  pairs  of  twins. 
The  descendants  of  Mr.  Moore  married  into  the  Bayard,  Livingston, 
Hoffman,  Onderdonk,  Bailey,  Tredwell  and  Rogers  families,  which  are 
among  the  most  respectable  families  of  the  North. 

Stephen,  the  seventeenth  child,  owned  West  Point,  which  he  sold  to 
the  United  States,  and  removed  to  North  Carolina.  Upon  the  invasion 
of  the  Southern  States  by  the  British,  in  1779,  'ie  commanded  a  regi- 
ment of  North  Carolina  militia.  He  was  afterwards  taken  prisoner  at 
the  first  battle  of  Camden.  Being  exchanged,  he  returned  to  his  beau- 
tiful seat,  Mount  Tirza,  in  North  Carolina,  where  he  died,  leaving  in 
that  State  a  highly  respectable  family. 

The  seventh  of  the  thirteen  sons  of  John  Moore  was  Lambert,  who 
married  Elizabeth  Channing.  He  was  born  in  1722 — was  sent  to  Eng- 
land for  education,  and  was  bred  a  scholar  in  Westminster  school.  At 
twenty-one  years  of  age  he  returned  to  his  native  country,  and  settled 
in  that  part  of  the  State  of  New  York  which  was  called  the  neutral 
ground.  Here  he  lost  all  his  property  amidst  the  devastation  and  plun- 
der which  desolated  that  part  of  the  country.  His  house  at  West  Point, 
where  he  resided  during  the  early  part  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  was 
plundered  by  the  Hessians,  when  the  British  took  the  posts  of  the 
Highlands,  and  his  family  was  turned  out  of  doors  in  a  destitute  con- 
dition. He  removed  thence  to  the  city  of  New  York,  where  he  obtained 
an  appointment  in  the  Customs,  and  lived  in  comfort  until  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  war.  After  this  event  he  removed  to  his  brother  John's,  in 
Norwich,  Connecticut,  where  he  died  of  a  pulmonary  disease,  on  the 


490  APPENDIX. 

19th  of  June,  1784,  in  the  communion  of  the  church.  In  the  spring  of 
1785  his  remains  were  removed  to  New  York,  and  deposited  in  the 
family  vault  in  Trinity  churchyard,  by  his  son,  Richard  Channing 
Moore,  the  late  Bishop  of  Virginia,  who  then  resided  in  that  city. 

The  mother  of  Bishop  Moore  was  descended  of  a  highly  respectable 
family.  Being  left  an  orphan  at  two  years  of  age,  she  was  brought  up 
in  the  family  of  her  uncle,  John  Pintard,  Esq.,  one  of  the  aldermen  of 
New  York.  She  was  an  accomplished  lady,  having  received  the  best 
education  which  New  York  afforded,  and  was  highly  esteemed  in  the 
best  society  of  her  native  city.  She  was  polished  in  her  manners,  of 
the  most  amiable  disposition  and  exemplary  piety,  and  was  remarkable 
for  sound  judgment  and  strong  good  sense.  To  the  early  religious  in- 
structions, the  prayers,  and  lovely  and  pious  example  of  this  exemplary 
Christian  mother,  Bishop  Moore  often  delighted  to  revert,  with  tears 
of  gratitude  in  his  eyes,  and  a  bosom  swelling  with  filial  affection  and 
reverence.  To  her  early  nurture  and  admonition  in  the  Lord,  he 
ascribed,  under  God,  all  his  happiness  and  usefulness  in  this  world,  and 
his  hopes  of  a  blessed  immortality  in  the  next.  She  entered  upon  her 
eternal  rest  at  his  house,  on  Staten  Island,  on  the  7th  of  December, 
1805,  in  the  78th  year  of  her  age. 

Of  the  eleven  brothers  and  sisters  of  Bishop  Moore,  our  limits  will 
allow  us  only  to  say  that  they  were  all  honorably  connected  in  mar- 
riage, were  respectable,  virtuous  and  useful. 

Richard  Channing  Moore,  the  late  Bishop  of  Virginia,  was  born  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  on  the  21st  of  August,  1762.  He  received  a 
liberal  education,  and  was  bred  a  physician;  but  after  practising  medi- 
cine for  several  years,  in  1787  he  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the 
ministry  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Provoost 
in  New  York.  The  first  two  years  of  his  ministry  were  spent  at  Rye, 
in  the  county  of  West  Chester,  most  acceptably  to  the  congregation 
among  whom  l.J  labored,  and  usefully  for  the  church  at  whose  altar  he 
ministered.  Thence  he  was  called  to  a  wider  field  of  labor  by  the  con- 
gregation of  St.  Andrew's  Church,  at  Richmond,  on  Staten  Island. 

Here  Dr.  Moore  labored  for  twenty-one  years  with  eminent  success. 
His  faithfulness  in  all  the  departments  of  ministerial  duty,  his  zeal  in 
the  advancement  of  true  religion,  his  love  of  his  Divine  Master  and  of 
his  work,  his  unaffected  love  of  all  men,  his  amenity  of  manners  and 
entire  freedom  from  spiritual  pride  and  all  moroseness  in  his  theological 
views,  gave  him  not  only  an  unbounded  popularity  among  his  people, 
but  won  for  him  their  warm  admiration  and  sincere  attachment. 

In  1809  Dr.  Moore  was  called  by  God's  providence  to  a  still  more 
important   sphere  of  usefulness   in   St.  Stephen's   Church,   in   the  city 


APPENDIX.  491 

of  New  York.  Here  he  continued  five  years.  His  labors  were  very 
great  :  but  neither  the  strength  of  his  fine  constitution  nor  the  ardor  of 
his  zeal  failed,  and  he  was  again,  as  on  Staten  Island,  richly  rewarded 
for  all  his  toils  by  the  abundant  bestowment  of  God's  blessing  on  the 
work  of  his  ministry.  He  found  a  small  congregation,  and  only  about 
thirty  communicants.  After  a  short  ministry  of  five  years  he  left  a 
crowded  church  and  between  four  and  five  hundred  communicants. 
There  is,  I  believe,  to  this  day,  in  St.  Stephen's  Church,  an  honorable 
monument  to  the  zeal  and  efficiency  of  his  ministry  while  there.  When 
the  whole  church  had  become  crowded,  every  pew,  not  only  in  the 
bodv  of  the  church,  but  also  in  the  galleries  being  occupied,  a  gentle- 
man called  on  the  rector  and  applied  for  a  pew.  "  There  is  none,"  was 
the  reply.  "Will  you  permit  me  to  build  one?"  was  the  answer. 
"Where?"  said  the  doctor.  "There,  over  the  gallery,  against  the 
wall,"  said  the  persevering  applicant.  "But  how  will  you  obtain  ac- 
cess to  it?"  said  the  doctor.  "By  cutting  a  small  door  in  the  wall,  and 
building  a  private  stairway  outside  of  the  church,"  said  the  zealous 
man;  and  there,  I  understand,  high  up  against  the  wall,  is  that  pew  to 
this  day,  a  lasting  memorial  of  pastoral  zeal,  fidelity  and  eloquence, 
such  as  few  ministers  of  Christ  are  cheered  by. 

The  next  important  change  which  occurred  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Moore 
was  his  call  to  the  Rectorship  of  the  Monumental  Church,  at  Richmond, 
and  to  the  Episcopate  of  Virginia.  These  events  occurred  in  the  spring 
of  181 4.  The  peculiar  history  of  the  church  of  which  he  now  became 
Rector  is  too  well  known  to  require  more  than  the  remark,  that  it  was 
built  upon  the  site  of  the  old  theatre — the  burning  of  which  had  caused 
the  death  of  more  than  a  hundred  persons,  and  involved  Richmond  in 
the  deepest  distress. 

Dr.  Moore  enjoyed  all  the  real  blessings  of  life  to  the  last ;  with  un- 
usual physical  strength,  and  mental  faculties  but  little  impaired,  except 
his  memory,  he  continued  his  duties  even  to  the  end.  Two  days  only 
before  the  last  visitation  on  which  he  died,  he  officiated  and  preached 
at  a  funeral.  His  address  was  ex  tempore,  and  such  was  his  energy, 
animation  and  fervor,  and  such  the  influence  of  his  exhortation,  that  an 
old  Christian  of  another  Christian  society  said,  "Surely  this  must  be 
his  last,  last  message  to  Richmond."  It  was  so;  two  days  after  he 
obeyed  the  call  of  duty,  and  commenced,  in  his  80th  year,  a  journey 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  to  Lynchburg,  to  perform  Episcopal 
functions.  He  arrived  in  Lynchburg  on  Thursday,  the  5th  of  Novem- 
ber. On  Friday  he  attended  Divine  service  in  the  forenoon ;  in  the 
afternoon  he  met  at  the  Rector's  house  the  candidates  for  confirmation, 
and  made  them  a  very  admirable  address  on  the  qualifications  for  that 


492  APPENDIX. 

holy  rite;  in  the  evening  he  attended  service  again,  and  after  a  sermon 
by  one  of  his  presbyters  he  made  an  address,  which  is  represented  to 
have  been  characterized  by  pathos,  animation  and  energy  in  the  highest 
degree.  Eyes  that  seldom  wept  were  suffused  with  tears;  and  some  of 
the  most  hardened  in  impenitency  were  softened  when  the  old  and 
venerable  servant  of  God,  in  tenderest  accents,  and  with  outstretched 
and  trembling  hands,  and  fervent  love,  heralded  for  the  last  time  the 
good  tidings  of  the  Gospel,  and  entreated  them  for  Christ's  sake  to  be 
reconciled  to  God.  That  night,  after  a  day  spent  so  usefully  in  his 
sacred  office,  and  only  about  three  hours  after  his  voice  had  proclaimed, 
in  the  temple  of  God,  the  gracious  invitations  of  his  beloved  Saviour, 
the  fatal  shaft  which  no  skill  could  extract  pierced  him.  Feeling  unwell 
a  little  after  midnight,  he  arose  to  call  for  help ;  but  his  strength  failing 
him,  he  fell  on  the  floor,  and  lay  there  helpless  for  some  time  before 
his  returning  strength  enabled  him  to  make  himself  heard.  When 
raised  and  placed  on  his  bed,  he  was  found  to  be  laboring  under  a 
violent  attack  of  pneumonia.  He  lived  for  five  days,  suffering  but  very 
little  pain,  and  during  most  of  the  time  none.  Generally  he  was  in  a 
profound  stupor,  but  occasionally  he  roused  up,  and  his  eyes  and  coun- 
tenance would  for  a  little  while  resume  their  usual  intelligent  and 
benevolent  expression.  When  thus  himself,  he  was  resigned,  calm,  full 
of  peace  and  hope,  and  free  from  all  fear.  When  asked  whether  there 
was  anything  to  be  done  in  reference  to  his  temporal  affairs,  he  said  no, 
that  everything  had  been  attended  to — that  nothing  remained  but  to 
bid  the  Rev.  Mr.  Atkinson  to  bear  his  love  to  his  dear  children.  When 
told  (by  Mr.  Atkinson,  at  whose  house  he  died,  and  who,  with  his  wife, 
were  son  and  daughter  to  him  in  the  absence  of  his  own  children)  that 
death  was  at  hand,  he  said,  "  It  is  well;  I  trust  I  am  prepared  either  for 
this  world  or  the  next."  On  Thursday,  November  10,  1842,  at  about 
half  past  one  a.  m.,  after  hours  of  entire  freedom  from  pain,  and  in  the 
gentlest  and  most  peaceful  manner,  without  a  struggle  or  a  groan,  this 
good  man  died. 

The  second  child  of  John  and  Rebecca  Moore  was  Thomas,  born  in 
Carolina,  1689;  he  was  likewise  sent  to  England  for  his  education. 
He  graduated  at  Oxford,  and  took  orders  and  became  the  Chaplain  to 
Dr.  Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  one  of  the  most  eminent  scholars 
and  celebrated  preachers  of  his  age.  The  well-known  sermons  of  this 
admired  prelate  were  edited  and  published  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
Moore.  He  died  in  Little  Britain,  in  London,  leaving  a  highly  respect- 
able family,  among  whom  was  Thomas  Moore,  D.  D.,  rector  of  North 
Bray,  in  Kent. 

Daniel,  sixth  child  of  John  Moore,  of  Philadelphia,  was  also  sent  to 


APPENDIX.  493 

England,  and  received  his  education  at  Oxford,  and  became  an  eminent 
lawyer;  made  a  large  estate,  and  was  a  member  of  Parliament  for  many 
years.  His  daughter,  Frances  Moore,  married  the  celebrated  Lord 
Chancellor  of  England,  Erskine.  "Burke"  gives  the  following  ac- 
count of  this  union: 

LINEAGE. 

The  Hon.  Thomas  Erskine,  born  January  21,  1750,  third  son  of  Henry  David, 
fifth  Earl  of  Buchan  (see  lhat  dignity  I,  having  served  both  in  the  army  and  navy,  de- 
voted at  length  his  talents  to  the  bar,  to  which  he  was  called  in  1778.  Gifted  with  the 
most  powerful  eloquence,  Mr.  Erskine  attained  at  once  the  summit  of  his  profession  as 
an  advocate,  in  which  capacity  he  continued  until  the  year  1806,  when  lie  was  ap- 
pointed Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Great  Britain,  and  elevated  to  the  peerage,  April  8th, 
in  the  same  year,  as  Baron  Erskine,  of  Restormel  Castle.  His  lordship  married,  first, 
May  29,  1770,  Frances,  daughter  of  Daniel  Moore,  Esq.,  M.  P.,  by  whom  (who  died 
December  22,  1805)  he  had  issue: 

T.   David  Montagu,  present  peer. 

II.  Henry  David,  in  holy  orders,  Rector  of  Kirby  Underdale,  York  county;  mar- 
ried May  4,  1813,  Mary  Harriet,  third  daughter  of  John,  first  Earl  of  Portarlington, 
by  whom  (who  died  December  16,  1S27)  he  has  issue:  I.  Henry;  2.  George;  3.  Har- 
riet; 4.  Louisa-Lucy,  married,  May  21,  1845,  to  tne  Rev.  Thomas  Frederick  Rudston 
Read;  5.  Caroline;  6.  Fanny-Louisa,  married,  September  16,  1847,  to  Henry  Linwood 
Strong,  ENq.,  barrister-at-law  ;  7.  Agnes;  and  8.  Julia-Henrietta,  married,  February  17, 
1846,  to  Captain  Broadley  Harrison,  Tenth  Hussars. 

III.  Thomas  (the  Right  Hon.),  late  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas,  born  March  12,  17SS ;  married,  December  10,  1814,  Henrietta-Eliza,  only 
daughter  of  the  late  Henry  Trail,  Esq.,  and  has  surviving  issue  : 

I.  Henry  Trail,  born  December  25,  1 81 5  ;  2.  Thomas,  born  November  12,  1828; 
3.  Anne;  4.  Julia. 

IV.  Esme-Stewart,  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  the  army,  born  in  1789,  married,  in  1809, 
Eliza  Bland,  daughter  of  the  late  Lieutenant-Colonel  Smith,  and  by  her  (who  married, 
secondly,  James  Norton,  Esq.,  and  died  in  1S33)  had  issue: 

I.  Thomas,  born  March  29,  1S10;  2.  Esme-Stewart,  born  September  8,  1S11,  died 
in  1S33;  3.  Harry,  born  August  II,  1S14. 

Colonel  Erskine  was  Deputy  Adjutant-General  in  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  where  he 
lost  an  arm.     He  died  August  26,  1817. 

V.  Frances,  married,  in  1 802,  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Holland,  prebendary  and  precentor 
of  Chichester. 

VI.  Elizabeth,  married,  in  1798,10  Sir  David  Erskine,  Knt.,  and  died  August  2, 
1 800. 

VII.  Margaret. 

VIII.  Mary,  married,  in  1S05,  to  David  Morris,  Esq.,  who  died  in  1815. 

Lord  Erskine  married,  secondly,  Miss  Sarah  Buck,  by  whom  he  also  left  issue.  The 
success  of  this  eminent  lawyer  is,  probably,  the  most  remarkable  upon  record  as  to 
promptitude;  for  almost  immediately  after  he  was  called  to  the  bar  he  was  fortunate 
enough  to  find  an  opportunity  for  the  display  of  his  extraordinary  powers.  Captain 
Bailhe,  who  had  been  removed  from  the  superintendence  of  Greenwich  Hospital,  by 
the  Earl  of  Sandwich,  was  proceeded  against  by  that  nobleman  for  the  publication  of  a 


494  APPENDIX. 

libel,  and  the  attorney-general  having  to  move  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  for  his 
lordship  upon  the  subject,  Mr.  Erskine  was  retained  by  Captain  Baillie  to  oppose  the 
motion  ;  upon  which  he  displayed  so  much  eloquence  and  spirit  that  he  received,  when 
leaving  the  court,  no  less  than  thirty  retainers  from  attorneys  who  happened  to  be 
present.  But  of  all  Erskine's  cases,  those  which  raised  the  advocate's  reputation  the 
highest  were  his  splendid  defences  of  Lord  George  Gordon  and  of  Admiral  Keppel. 
He  was  likewise  distinguished  in  an  eminent  degree  for  the  prisoners  in  the  memorable 
state  prosecutions  against  John  Home  Tooke,  Hardy,  etc. 

His  lordship  died  of  inflammation  of  the  chest,  November  17,  1823, 
at  Amondell,  near  Edinburgh,  the  seat  of  his  nephew,  the  Hon.  Henry 
Erskine.     The  following  is  the  inscription  upon  the  tomb  of  his  wife : 

Near  this  place  lies  buried 

The  Honorable  Frances  Erskine, 

The  most  faithful  and  most 

Affectionate  of  women. 

Her  husband, 

Lord  Thomas  Erskine, 

An  inhabitant  of  this  parish, 

Raised  this  monument 

To  her  lamented  memory. 

A.  D.  1807. 

John  Moore,  the  collector,  left,  as  we  see  by  his  will,  two  daughters — 
Rebecca  and  Mary.  Of  Rebecca  I  have  been  able  to  find  no  account, 
and  am  led  to  believe  she  died  unmarried.  Mary  became  the  wife  of 
Peter  Evans,  Esq.,  who  was  high  sheriff  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
He  was  born  in  the  city  of  London,  and  was  an  attorney  by  profession. 
He  styles  himself,  in  his  will  (May  13,  1745),  "of  the  Inner  Temple, 
London."  He  died  in  Philadelphia,  May  25,  1745,  leaving  four 
children,  viz.  :  John,  Mary,  Margaret  and  Ann.  I  find  no  record  of 
John.  Mary  married  a  Peter  Robinson.  Ann  died  a  child,  and  Mar- 
garet married  Mr.  David  Franks,  December,  1743,  and  had  issue — 

1.  Abigail,  born  January  6,  1744-5. 

2.  Jacob,  born  January  7,  1746-7. 

3.  Mary,  born  January  25,  1747-8;  died  August  26,  1774. 

4.  Rebecca. 

David  Franks  was  British  agent  in  Philadelphia  as  late  as  1779.     His 
eldest  daughter, 

I.  Abigail  married  Andrew  Hamilton,  Esq.,  of  the  "Woodlands," 
near  Philadelphia,  January  6,  1768,  and  had  issue  as  follows: 

5.  Margaret,  born  October  4,  1768. 

6.  Ann,  born  December  18,  1769;  died  1798. 

7.  Mary,  born  August  21,  1 771. 


ArrEXDix.  495 

8.  James,  bom  July  31,  1774;  died  July  20,  1817. 

9.  Andrew,  born  November  6,  1776;  died  May  16,  1825. 

10.  Franks,  born  May  22,  1779;  died  August  4,  1798. 

11.  Rep.ecca,  born  November  7,  1783;  died  February  2,  1S42. 

IV.  Rebecca  Franks  married  Sir  Henry  Johnson,  Bart.,  for  an 
account  of  whom  see  "Burke's  Peerage." 

VI.  Ann  Hamilton  married  James  Lyle,  October  17,  1792,  and 

had  issue : 

12.  Mary,  born  January  22,  1796;  died  November  1,  TS29. 

13.  Ellen,  born  October  21,  1797;  died  February  8,  1852. 

James  Lvle  was  a  broker  of  the  firm  of  Lyle  &  Newman.  He  died  at 
Long  Branch.  August  10,  1826. 

IX.  Andrew  Hamilton  married  Eliza,  only  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  D.  H.  Urquhart,  of  Brondmayne,  Dorset,  England,  June  11, 
181  7,  and  had  issue  : 

14.  Mary  Ann,  born  January  8,  1822;  died  January  24,  1S51. 
Andrew  Hamilton  died  in   1825,  and   his  widow  married   Mr.   John 

Gardiner;  she  died  March  12,  1834. 

XI.  Rebecca  Hamilton  married  Francis  Lewis  O'Beirne,  Novem- 
ber 28,  1809,  and  had  issue: 

15.  Thomas  Ormst.y,  born  1810;  died  October  25..  1839. 

16.  James  Hamilton. 

17.  Rececca  Jane,  died  1S39. 

Francis  Lewis  O'Beirne  was  the  son  of  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Meath, 
who  styles  himself  "of  Arabraccan  House,  in  the  county  of  Meath.,  in 
that  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  called  Ireland,  but  now,  1800,  re- 
siding in  London."  After  marriage  they  resided  at  Fern  Cottage, 
Heston,  near  Southwell,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  England.  In 
1818  Mrs.  O'Beirne  returned  to  America  (Philadelphia),  where  she  died 
February  2,  1842.  Francis  Lewis  O'Beirne  died  July  7,  1840.  Their 
son,  Thomas  Ormsby  O'-Bcirnc,  entered  the  English  army,  and  became 
a  captain  in  the  Twenty-fifth  Regiment  Bengal  Native  Infantry,  "near 
Shause,"  where  he  died,  single,  October  25,  1839,  leaving  a  will  which 
is  of  record  in  the  Register  of  Wills'  office,  Philadelphia. 

XII.  Mary  Lyle  married  Henry  Beckett,  November  12,  1818; 
had  issue : 

18    Mary  Ann;  died  1844. 
19.  Hamilton. 


496  APPENDIX. 

Henry  Beckett  was  the  son  of  Sir  Henry  Beckett.  See  "Burke" 
(Hamilton). 

XIII.  Ellen  Lyle  married  Hartman  Kuhn,  December  15,  1818; 
had  issue: 

20.  Mary. 

21.  Ellen. 

22.  Elizabeth,  born  February  17,  1826;  died  April  2,  1S30. 

23.  James  Hamilton  (killed  in  the  Rebellion). 

24.  Charles. 

25.  Rosalie,  born  April  23,  1S29;  died  December  20,  1841. 

26.  Hartman,  born  February  22,  1831. 

27.  Elizabeth  (2d),  born  October  24,  1S33. 

28.  Sophia,  born  June  5,  1835. 

Hartman  Kuhn  was  the  son  of  Adam  Kuhn,  M.  D.,  of  Philadelphia; 
he  was  born  February  4,  1784;  died  November  6,  i860. 

XIV.  Mary  Ann  Hamilton  married  Septimus  Henry  Palairet, 
May  1,  1843.      By  this  marriage  there  was  no  issue. 

Septimus  Henry  Palairet  died  June,  1854. 

XVI.  James  Hamilton  O'Beime  married  Henrietta  Francis ; 
had  issue: 

29.  Hamilton  Kuhn,  born  January  8,  1866. 

30.  Frances  Stuart. 

31.  Lewis  Ormsby. 

32.  Armine  James. 

33.  Emily. 

34.  Charles  Burgoyne. 

35.  William  Henry  De  Lancey. 

36.  Eveline  Fanny  Amelia. 

XVII.  Rebecca  Jane  O'Beime  married  Major  Armine  Simcoe 
Henry  Mountain,  June  10,  1837;  had  issue: 

37.  Jenny  (died  an  infant). 

Major  (afterwards  Colonel)  Armine  Simcoe  Henry  Mountain  was  in 
her  Britannic  Majesty's  service,  in  the  Twenty-sixth  (Cameronian) 
Regiment.  Upon  the  death  of  his  wife,  in  1839,  he  again  married 
Miss  Charlotte  Anna  Dundas,  and  died  February  8,  1854. 

XVIII.  Mary  Ann  Beckett  married  Sir  Thomas  Whichcote, 
Bart.  ;  died  May,  1844. 


APTEXDIX.  497 

XIX.  Hamilton  Beckett  married  Sophia,  daughter  of  Lord 
Lyndhurst. — ^See  "Burke.") 

XX.  Mary  Kuhn  married  (her  cousin)  Hartman  Kuhn  (son  of 
Charles  i,  February  3,  1S42. 

38.  Frederick,  born  December  16,  1843;  died  December  23,  1844. 

39.  William. 

40.  Mary. 

41.  Ellen. 

42.  Cornelius  Hartman. 

43.  Charles. 

XXI.  Ellen  Kuhn  married  Manlius  Evans. 

44.  Cadwai.ader. 

45.  Ellen  Lvle. 

46.  Rosalie. 

47.  Hartman  Kuhn. 

XXIV.  Charles  Kuhn  married  Louisa,  daughter  of  the  Hon. 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  of  Massachusetts. 

XXVI.   Hartman  Kuhn  married  Grace  McCarey. 

Another  son  of  John  Moore  was  William  Moore  (known  as  of  Moore 
Hall),  from  his  seat  on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  above  Valley  Forge. 
He  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  May  6,  1699,  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen 
was  sent  to  England  to  finish  his  education.  He  graduated  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford  in  1719,  and  returned  to  America,  where  he  married 
Williamina,  daughter  of  David,  fourth  Earl  of  Wemyss.*     She  had,  to- 

*A  recent  writer  in  "  Frazer's  Magazine"  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
Wemyss  of  Fifeshire  : 

The  Wemyss  family  has  claims  to  great  antiquity,  being  descendants  of  Gillimachus, 
fourth  Earl  of  Fife.  Their  great  ancestor,  the  first  Earl,  is  the  Macduff  of  Shakspeare, 
whose  important  service  to  King  Malcolm  was  rewarded  by  that  monarch  with  the 
Earldom  of  Fife.  Three  special  privileges  were  also  bestowed  upon  him  at  the  same 
period :  First,  that  he  and  his  successors  should  conduct  the  king  to  the  chair  of  state 
at  coronations;  second,  that  they  should  lead  the  van  of  the  army  in  battle;  and,  third, 
that  unpremeditated  murder  on  the  part  of  any  of  Macduff's  kin  to  the  ninth  degree 
was  expiable  by  certain  fines  or  offerings  at  the  cross  of  Macduff.  "Our  judicious 
Skeen,"  as  Sibbald  calls  him,  thus  refers  to  this  curious  privilege:  "The  croce  of  clan 
Mackduff  had  privelege  and  liberty  of  girth,  in  sik  sort,  that  when  onie  manslayer, 
being  within  the  ninth  degree  of  kin  and  bluid  to  Mackduff,  sometime  Earl  of  Fyffe, 
come  to  that  croce,  and  gave  nyne  kie  (cows)  and  an  colpindach  or  young  kow,  he 
was  free  of  the  slaughter  committed  be  him."  A  dangerous  privilege,  it  will  be 
thought,  in  those  lawless  times.  Very  little  now  remains  of  this  famous  cross.  There 
32 


$9  3  APPENDIX. 

■gether  with  her  brother  James  (afterwards  fifth  Earl  of  Wemyss),  been 
driven  from  Scotland  in  the  year  1716,  on  account  of  their  father  having 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  Pretender. 

"  Burke,"  in  his  Peerage  of  Scotland,  gives  the  following 

LINEAGE. 

This  ancient  family  traces  its  origin  to  John,  baronial  Lord  of  Weems,  whence  the 
surname  was  probably  derived,  who  was  younger  son  of  the  celebrated  Macduff,  Thane 
Df  Fife,  the  vanquisher  of  the  tyrant  Macbeth. 

Sir  Michael  de  Wemyss  was  sent,  according  to  Fordun,  in  1 290,  with  Sir  Michael 
Scot,  to  Norway,  by  the  lords  of  the  regency  in  Scotland,  to  conduct  the  young  Queen 
Margaret  to  her  dominions;  but  her  majesty  unfortunately  died  upon  the  journey,  at 
the  Orkneys.  Sir  Michael  swore  fealty  to  Edward  I.,  in  1296,  and  he  witnessed  the 
act  of  settlement  of  the  crown  of  Scotland  by  King  Robert  I.,  at  Ayr,  in  1315.  From 
Sir  Michael  lineally  descended: 

Sir  John  Wemyss,  of  Wemyss,  who  married,  first,  in  1574,  Margaret,  eldest  daughter 
of  William,  Earl  of  Morton,  but  by  that  lady  had  no  issue;  and,  secondly,  in  1581, 
Anne,  sister  of  James,  Earl  of  Moray,  by  whom  he  had,  with  other  issue, 

Sir  John  WTemyss,  of  Wemyss,  who  was  created  a  Baronet  May  29,  1625  ;  and  elevated 
to  the  peerage  of  Scotland,  as  Baron  Wemyss,  of  Eklio,  April  I,  1628.  His  lordship  was 
advanced  to  the  dignities  of  Earl  of  Wemyss,  in  the  county  Fife,  and  Lord  ElcJw  and 
MetJiel,  June  25,  1633.  This  nobleman,  although  indebted  for  his  honors  to  King 
Charles  I.,  took  part  against  his  royal  master,  and  sided  with  the  Parliamentarians. 
He  married,  in  1610,  Jane,  daughter  of  Patrick,  seventh  Lord  Gray,  by  whom  he  had 
six  children,  and  was  succeeded  in  1649  by  his  only  son, 

David,  second  earl.  This  nobleman  married,  first,  in  162S,  Jean,  daughter  of  Robert 
Balfour,  Lord  Burleigh,  by  whom  he  had  an  only  surviving  daughter, 

Jane,  who  became,  first,  the  wife  of  Archibald,  Earl  of  Angus;  and,  after  his  lord- 
ship's decease,  of  George,  Earl  of  Sutherland. 

The  Earl  of  Wemyss  married,  secondly,  Lady  Eleanor  Fleming,  daughter  of  John, 
second  Earl  of  Wigton,  but  by  that  lady  had  no  issue.  He  married,  thirdly,  Margaret, 
daughter  of  John,  sixth  Earl  of  Rothes  (widow  successively  of  James,  Lord  Balgony, 
and  Francis,  Earl  of  Buccleuch),  by  whom  he  had  an  only  surviving  daughter,  Mar- 
garet, in  whose  favor  his  lordship,  having  resigned  his  peerage  to  the  crown,  obtained, 
August  3,  1672,  a  new  patent,  conferring  the  honors  of  the  family,  with  the  original 
precedency,  upon  her  ladyship.  He  died  in  1680,  when  the  baronetcy  became  dor- 
mant, but  the  other  dignities  descended  accordingly  to  his  daughter, 


can  be  no  doubt  that  these  early  Earls  of  Fife  exercised  absolute  and  almost  royal  stale 
and  jurisdiction  within  their  territories,  forming  a  kind  of  imperium  in  imperio.  A 
manuscript  referred  to  by  Sibbald  says:  "  He  had  all  his  earldom  (Fife)  erected  into 
a  principality,  that  is  to  say,  to  exime  his  tenants  and  subjects  from  all  other  courts 
and  judgement,  and  give  justice  to  all  his,  m  his  own  countries."  Very  likely  it  is 
owing  to  this,  rather  than  to  its  general  wealth  and  importance,  that  the  county,  which 
at  that  time  included  Kinross,  Clackmannan,  and  portions  of  Perthshire  and  Stirling- 
shire, came  to  be  designated  "  the  Kingdom  of  Fife."  The  Wemyss  branch  of  the 
Macduffs  broke  off  from  the  main  stem  at  the  fourth  earl,  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
the  present  Fife  branch  of  the  family  is  descended  from  James,  third  son  of  the  fifth 
£axl  of  .Wemyss.     The  chief  of  the  blood  is  the  Earl  of  Wemyss, 


APPENDIX.  499 

Lady  Margaret  Wemyss,  as  Countess  of  Wemyss.  Her  ladyship  married  Sir  James 
Wemyss,  of  Caskycrry,  who  was  created,  April  15,  1672,  for  life,  Lor.d  Burntisland, 
having  had  previously  a  charter  of  the  castle  of  Burntisland.  The  issue  of  this  mar- 
riage were : 

David,  successor  to  the  countess's  honors. 

Anne,  who  married  David,  Earl  of  Leven  and  Melville,  and  had  issue. 

Margaret,  married  to 'David,  Earl  of  Notthesk. 

The  Countess  of  Wemyss  married,  secondly,  George,  first  Earl  of  Cromarty,  but  had 
no  issue  by  his  lordship;  she  died  in  1705,  and  was  succeeded  by  her  only  son, 

David,  fourth  earl.  This  nobleman,  who  was  appointed  by  Queen  Anne,  Lord 
High  Admiral  of  Scotland,  sworn  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  constituted  one  of  the 
Commissioners  for  concluding  the  treaty  of  union,  married,  first,  in  1697,  Lady  Anne 
Douglas,  daughter  of  William,  first  Duke  of  Queensberry,  and  sister  of  James,  Duke 
of  Queensberry  and  Dover,  and  of  William,  first  Earl  of  March,  by  whom  he  had  one 
surviving  son, 

James,  his  successor. 

Williamina  (afterwards  Mrs.  Moore). 

There  is  a  tradition  in  the  family  that  the  wife  of  David  Wemyss  died 
in  childbed,  and,  believing  her  expected  child  to  be  a  boy,  requested 
that  it  be  christened  William,  after  William  of  Orange;  being  a  girl,  it 
was  christened  Williamina. 

David  Wemyss  married  twice  afterwards,  but  had  no  male  issue.  He 
died  March  15,  1720. 

Upon  his  marriage,  William  Moore  settled  upon  an  estate  presented 
to  him  by  his  father,  John  Moore,  which  was  situated  upon  the  river 
Schuylkill,  some  twenty-five  miles  from  Philadelphia.  This  property 
consisted  of  about  twelve  hundred  acres  of  land,  which  he  farmed  with 
the  help  of  a  large  number  of  slaves  and  redemptioners.  He  built  upon 
it  a  large  house  (still,  in  1880,  standing).  It  was  known  as  "Moore 
Hall." 

William  Moore  died  at  Moore  Hall,  May  30,  1782.  His  will, 
which  is  written  "with  his  own  hand,"  is  a  singular  document, 
being  mainly  a  tribute  to  his  wife,  to  whom  he  gives  his  whole  estate, 
and  of  whom  he  says:  "Never  frightened  by  the  rude  rabble,  or  dis- 
mayed by  the  insolent  threats  of  the  ruling  powers — happy  woman,  a 
pattern  of  her  sex,  and  worthy  the  relationship  she  bears  to  the  Right 
Honorable  and  noble  family  from  whence  she  sprang."  He  was  a 
staunch  Royalist,  but  during  the  stay  of  the  army  at  Valley  Forge  he 
invited  Colonel  Clement  Biddle  and  his  staff  to  make  Moore  Hall  his 
headquarters.  Mrs.  Moore  survived  him  until  December  6,  1784,  when 
the  family  removed  to  Philadelphia. 

The  following  notice  of  the  death  of  William  Moore,  Esq.,  appeared 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  June  18,  1782: 


SOO  APPENDIX. 

On  Friday,  May  30th,  died  at  his  seat  in  Chester  county,  William  Moore,  Esq., 
of  Moore  Hall,  in  the  84th  year  of  his  age,  and  was  interred  on  the  Sunday  following, 
in  his  family  burying-ground,  at  Radnor  churchyard.  His  funeral  was  attended  by  a 
large  concourse  of  his  most  respectable  neighbors,  and  an  excellent  sermon  was 
preached  by  the  Rev.  William  Currie.  At  an  early  period  of  his  life  Mr.  Moore  was 
a  member  of  the  Assembly,  a  Colonel  of  militia,  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  and 
President  of  the  County  Courts  of  Chester,  which  last  office  he  filled  with  great  and 
acknowledged  abilities  for  about  forty  years.  He  has  left  a  numerous  family  of  chil- 
dren, grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren  to  bewail  his  memory;  and  more  es- 
pecially a  mournful  and  beloved  wife,  with  whom  he  lived  upwards  of  sixty-one  years 
in  the  most  perfect  and  uninterrupted  conjugal  felicity. 

The  following  inscription  is  on  a  slab  at   Radnor  Church,  Delaware 

county,  Pennsylvania: 

"  To  the  memory  of 

William  Moore,  Esq.,  of  Moore  Hall,  in  the 

County  of  Chester, 

and  of  WlLLIAMINA  his  wife. 

He  departed  this  life  on  the  30th  day  of 

May,  1783,  aged  84  years. 

She  died  on  the  6th  day  of  December,  1784, 

in  the  80th  year  of  her  age. 

"  This  venerable  pair  lived  together  in  perfect  love  and  unremitted 
harmony  and  confidence  for  the  long  period  of  sixty-three  years;  dis- 
pensing the  best  duties  of  life  in  ardent  and  uninterrupted  zeal;  beloved 
by  their  children  and  by  their  friends,  respected  by  the  community  in 
which  they  passed  their  lengthened  days.  Benevolence  and  urbanity 
beamed  on  all  who  sought  their  hospitable  mansion;  they  administered 
comfort  to  the  worthy  poor,  protecting  humble  honesty  though  cursed 
with  poverty. 

"  He  presided  in  the  Common  Pleas,  Quarter  Sessions,  and  Orphans' 
Courts  in  Chester  county  for  a  great  length  of  time.  As  a  judge  and  a 
magistrate  he  was  indefatigable  in  executing  the  solemn  charge  of  these 
important  stations,  acquitting  himself  with  intelligence,  impartiality  and 
dignity.  He  was  a  kind  father,  a  warm  friend  and  an  indulgent  master. 
She  was  one  of  the  brightest  patterns  of  excelling  nature.  Possessing  a 
bright  and  cultivated  heart  and  understanding,  she  was  mild,  consider- 
ate, kind  and  good;  she  was  consequently  distinguished  by  her  amiable 
disposition  and  unassuming  manners.  With  calmness,  but  with  resigna- 
tion, she  bore  the  heaviest  afflictions,  the  severest  trials  of  an  uncertain 
world,  and  placed  her  firm  reliance  upon  a  state  of  happiness  beyond 
the  grave — 

"  '  That  place  Celestial,  where  no  storm  assails, 
No  ills  approach — where  bliss  alone  prevails.' " 


APPENDIX.  50I 


The  foregoing  inscription  was  written  by  Phineas  Bond,  a  grandson 
of  the  Moores.  For  a  full  account  of  the  issue  and  descendants  of 
William  and  WUliamina  Moore,  of  Moore  Hall,  see  Appendix  XI. 


No.  III. — Page  237. 


Alexander  Murray,  D.  D. 

[By  John  A.  Childs,  D.  D.] 

The  Rev.  Alexander  Murray,  D.  D.,  was  a  native  of  Scotland, 
born  in  1727.  He  was  educated  in  King's  College,  Aberdeen.  After 
his  ordination  to  the  ministry  he  was  induced,  it  appears,  most  prob- 
ably by  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  who  was  a  graduate  of  the 
same  college,  on  his  visit  to  England,  his  native  land,  to  come  to 
Pennsylvania,  under  an  appointment  by  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel.  He  arrived  in  Pennsylvania  in  1763,  and  immediately 
began  his  ministry  at  Reading  and  Morlatten.  His  ecclesiastical 
views  were  of  a  very  decided  character,  and  his  work  as  a  missionary 
very  extensive.  He  laid  the  foundations  of  a  church  at  Reading,  called 
St.  Mary's,  and  the  people  of  that  town  were  very  solicitous  for  the 
continuance  of  his  appointment  by  the  society,  and  addressed  the  offi- 
cers to  that  effect.  During  the  agitation  which  existed  previous  to  the 
war  of  independence,  he  sympathized  largely  with  the  colonies,  and  in 
1775  signed  a  paper,  with  a  number  of  clergy,  hoping  and  praying  for 
some  method  of  conciliation,  and  satisfaction  of  a  reasonably  discon- 
tented people. 

When,  however,  a  separation  became  not  only  imminent,  but  a 
fail  accompli  to  all  intents,  he  refused  to  discontinue  the  prayers 
for  the  royal  family.  He  was  threatened  with  some  violence,  and 
thereafter  sailed  to  London.  He  continued  to  reside  there  during 
the  Revolutionary  war,  and  being  always  a  strong  advocate  for  an 
Episcopate  in  the  church  in  the  colonies,  he  used  his  influence  with  the 
Bishop  of  London,  as  well  as  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in 
seeking  for  the  consecration  of  bishops  in  the  United  States.  In  ac- 
complishing this  he  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the  Rev.  William 
White,  D.  D.,  communicating  the  conditions  under  which  consecra- 
tion would  be  imparted.  His  advice  and  influence  contributed  to  that 
end,  and  deserved,  as  has  been  said,  honorable  mention  and  grateful 
remembrance. 


502  APPENDIX. 

In  1 790  Dr.  Murray  returned  to  America,  and  continued  to  reside  in 
Philadelphia  until  his  death,  September  14,  1793.  His  body  lies 
interred  with  those  of  the  Sims,  Morgan,  Evans  and  Clark  families, 
with  which  he  was  connected  by  marriage — families  particularly  promi- 
nent in  the  early  history  of  the  church  in  Philadelphia.  Upon  his 
decease  he  left  by  his  will  directions  to  found  bursaries  in  connection 
with  the  university  at  which  he  graduated. 


No.  IV.— Pages  185,  258. 


The  Case  of  the  Episcopal  Church  Considered. 

[By  Mr.  Thomas  II.  Montgomery.] 

Bishop  White  begins  the  concluding  paragraph  of  his  "  Episcopal 
Charge  on  the  subject  of  Revivals,  delivered  before  the  Forty-eighth 
Convention  of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  and  addressed  to  the  Cleri- 
cal Members  of  the  Convention,  printed  by  order  of  the  Convention, 
Philadelphia,  1832,"  with  the  following  words: 

Brethren,  it  is  bordering  on  the  half  of  a  century  since  the  date  of  the  incipient 
measures  of  your  bishop,  for  the  organizing  of  our  church  out  of  the  wreck  of  the 
Revolution. 

On  a  copy  of  this  charge  in  my  possession  the  Bishop  has  added,  on 
the  last  blank  pages,  the  following  note : 

"Those  measures  began  with  the  author's  pamphlet,  entitled  'The 
case  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States  considered.' 
"  The  circumstances  attached  to  that  publication  are  the  following: 
"  The  congregations  of  our  communion  throughout  the  United  States 
were  approaching  to  annihilation.  Although  within  this  city  three 
Episcopal  clergymen,  including  the  author,  were  resident  and  offici- 
ating; the  church  over  the  rest  of  the  State  had  become  deprived  of 
their  clergy  during  the  war,  either  by  death  or  by  departure  for  Eng- 
land. In  the  Eastern  States,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  there  was  a 
cessation  of  the  exercises  of  the  pulpit ;  owing  to  the  necessary  disuse 
of  the  prayers  for  the  former  civil  rulers.  In  Maryland  and  in  Virginia, 
where  the  church  had  enjoyed  civil  establishments,  on  the  ceasing  of 
these,  the  incumbents  of  the  parishes,  almost  without  exception,  ceased 
to  officiate.     Further  south  the  condition  of  the  church  was  not  better, 


APPENDIX.  503 

to  say  the  least.  At  the  time  in  question  there  had  occurred  some  cir- 
cumstances which  prompted  the  hope  of  a  discontinuance  of  the  war : 
but  that  it  would  be  with  the  acknowledgment  of  American  indepen- 
dence there  was  little  reason  to  expect. 

"On  the  6th  of  August,  1782,  the  Congress,  as  noticed  on  their 
printed  journal  of  that  day,  received  a  communication  from  Sir  Guy 
Carleton  and  Admiral  Digby,  dated  the  2d  of  that  month,  which  gave 
the  first  opening  of  the  prospect  of  peace.  The  pamphlet  had  been 
advertised  for  sale  in  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  the  6th,  and  some 
copies  had  been  previously  handed  by  the  author  to  a  few  of  his  friends. 
This  suspended  the  intended  proceedings  in  the  business;  which,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  author,  would  have  been  justified  by  necessity,  and  by 
no  other  consideration. 

"It  was  an  opinion  commonly  entertained,  that  if  there  should  be  a 
discontinuance  of  military  operations,  it  would  be  without  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  independence,  as  happened  after  the  severance  of  the 
Netherlands  from  the  crown  of  Spain.  Of  the  like  issue  there  seemed 
probable  causes,  in  the  feelings  attendant  on  disappointed  efforts  for 
conquest;  and  in  the  belief  cherished,  that  the  successes  of  the  former 
colonists  would  be  followed  by  dissensions,  inducing  return  to  the 
domination  of  the  mother  country.  Had  the  war  ended  in  that  way, 
our  obtaining  of  the  succession  from  England  would  have  been  hopeless. 
The  remnant  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scotland,  laboring  under 
penal  laws  not  executed,  would  hardly  have  regarded  the  bringing  down 
on  themselves  of  the  arm  of  government.  Fear  of  the  like  offence  would 
have  operated  in  any  other  quarter  to  which  we  might  have  had  re- 
course. In  such  a  case,  the  obtaining  of  the  succession  in  time  to  save 
from  ruin,  would  seem  to  have  been  impossible." 


No.  V. — Page  309. 


Peregrine  Wroth,  M.  D.,  of  Baltimore,  Md. 

The  great  interest  taken  in  this  work  by  the  late  venerable  Dr. 
Peregrine  Wroth,  of  Baltimore,  in  furnishing  information  in  regard  to 
Dr.  Smith's  life  in  Maryland,  prompted  me  to  write  to  him  to  get  some 
of  the  particulars  of  his  life,  out  of  which  to  prepare  a  notice  of  him  in 
event  of  his  death,  which  I  felt  sure  would  occur  ere  its  publication.  I 
therefore  give  such  extracts  from  his  letters,  which  will  be  found  entire 


504  APPENDIX. 

in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  as  may  tend  to  that  purpose. 
He  says,  under  date  April,  1877  : 

It  is  a  rather  difficult  task,  especially  to  one  whose  life  is  not  such  as  to  serve  as  an 
example  for  the  imitation  of  others.  But  this  I  can  say,  that  my  family  (in  America), 
beginning  with  James  Wroth,  Esq.,  who  emigrated  from  England  in  or  about  1660, 
can  trace  back  the  name  to  one  who  bore  the  name  of  De  Wrothatn,  in  the  reign 
of  King  John. 

The  family  in  England  held  a  very  respectable  rank  in  society,  as  a  genealogy  sent 
to  me  by  John  Newlon  Lane,  Esq.,  of  King's  Bromley  Manor,  near  Lichfield,  in 
1S54,  informs  me.  Mr.  Lane  descended  from  Mary  Wroth,  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Sir  Henry  Wroth.  I  was  of  the  fifth  generation  after  James,  and  was  born  April  7, 
1786,  being  now  91  years  old  on  the  7th  of  this  month.  Before  I  left  college  1  was 
adopted  by  a  cousin  of  my  father,  and  intended  as  a  student  of  law  under  Hon.  James 
A.  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  the  grandfather  of  Hon.  T.  F.  Bayard,  now  a  Senator  of  the 
United  States,  the  office  held  by  his  father  and  grandfather.  But  he  who  had  adopted 
me  dying  before  my  father,  I  was  persuaded  to  study  medicine,  and  began  to  practise 
in  1807,  and  after  the  age  of  70  retired  from  public  life,  and,  1868,  removed  to  Balti- 
more. Having  been  baptized  by  your  distinguished  ancestor,  the  first  Principal  of  my 
(Washington)  college,  I  have  always  felt  an  interest  in  that  college,  and  finished  my 
course  there  in  1803  under  Rev.  Dr.  C.  Ferguson,  the  second  Principal,  the  successor 
of  your  ancestor,  then  Provost  (I  think)  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

I  practised  fifty  years,  lacking  two  months.  Of  myself  I  can  only  say  that  I  think  I 
held  a  respectable  rank  among  my  contemporary  physicians,  and  about  1840  or  1 841 
published  a  small  volume  under  the  title  of  "  Clinical  Aphorisms,"  for  beginners.  I 
afterwards  wrote  Brief  Memoirs  of  the  twelve  physicians  of  my  county  (Kent)  who 
were  in  practice  before  the  act  of  "  Incorporating  the  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Faculty 
of  Maryland"  was  passed — at  the  request  of  the  eminent  Dr.  George  C.  M.  Roberts, 
late  of  this  city,  who  contemplated  a  work  on  that  portion  of  the  faculty;  but  which 
of  course  was  not  published. 

Under  date  February  8,  1872,  he  says: 

Your  ancestor,  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  was  Rector  of  I.  U.  Parish,  Kent  county, 
the  church  in  Chestertown  being  at  that  time  a  chapel  of  ease,  where  he  regularly 
preached,  and  lived  in  Chestertown.  I  have  many,  many  times  been  in  the  house 
where  he  lived,  and  almost  feel  as  if  I  had  been  acquainted  with  him — having  been 
baptized  by  him  and  afterwards  an  alumnus  of  the  college  of  which  he  was  the  first 
Principal.  I  will  here  send  you  one  or  two  anecdotes  which,  I  am  confident,  are 
authentic. 

On  some  occasion  a  man  from  the  country  was  in  his  house,  and  being  in  the 
library  with  the  doctor,  and  amazed  at  the  great  number  of  books,  exclaimed,  "  My — 
my !  Doctor,  did  you  ever  read  all  these  books  ?  "  The  doctor  replied  :  "  Hoot,  mon, 
no;  but  I  know  what's  in  'em."  This  was  during  the  doctor's  residence  in  Chester — 
from  about  1 780  to  — .  Btfore  that  time  he  lived  in  Philadelphia.  About  the 
commencement  of  the  Revolution  of  1776  the  gentlemen  of  Philadelphia  were  in  the 
habit  of  meeting  every  day  in  the  old  City  Hall,  in  Market  street  below  Third.  One 
day  the  meeting  had  taken  place,  and  after  a  while  Dr.  Smith  entered  the  hall.  Dr. 
Benjamin  Rush  was  there,  and,  walking  up  to  the  doctor,  said:   "  Dr.  Smith,  we  have 


APPENDIX.  505 

come  to  the  conclusion  that  you  are  the  author  of "  [Publius,  I  think,  an  article 

which  had  appeared  in  one  of  the  newspapers).  The  doctor  regarded  Rush  with  a 
glance  of  dignified  contempt,  and  said:  "  Ben.  Rush,  I  knew  you  when  you  were  so 
high,"  holding  his  hand  about  three  feet  from  the  floor.  "  You  are  no  higher  yet,  mon." 
No  more  was  said  on  that  subject. 

These  anecdotes  I  heard,  I  am  almost  sure,  from  Dr.  Morgan  Browne,  an  eminent 
physician  of  Chestertown,  and  my  preceptor,  and  had  been  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Smith,  and 
may  be  considered  authentic.  Of  his  daughter  (I  will  not  be  sure  of  her  name.  If  he 
had  another  daughter  living  with  him  in  Chestertown,  it  may  not  have  been  William- 
ina),  I  heard  from  the  same  authority,  I  suppose,  that  she  was  walking  in  the  street, 
and  the  mud  took  one  of  her  shoes  off.  She  did  not  stop  to  take  it  up  (at  that  time 
the  sidewalks  for  foot-passengers  were  not  paved),  but  walked  on,  stepping  on  with 
the  foot  which  had  a  shoe  on  ;  then,  drawing  up  the  shoeless  foot  to  it,  again  advanced 
the  foot  that  had  a  shoe  on,  etc.  After  walking  on  in  this  way,  she  was  met  by  a 
friend,  who  asked:  "  What  are  you  doing?  "  Miss  Smith  replied  :  "  I'm  putting  my 
best  foot  foremost." 

These  little  things  seem  at  first  sight  of  little  value,  but  they  serve  to  indicate  char- 
acter.    Such  as  they  are,  I  offer  them — to  be  used  as  you  think  proper. 

I  do  not  remember  to  have  given  you  the  history  of  the  endowment  of  Washington 
and  St.  John's  Colleges — the  former  at  Chestertown,  the  latter  at  Annapolis,  Maryland. 
If  I  have  not,  and  such  account  shall  be  desired  and  in  time  for  your  work,  I  will  send 
it  when  you  let  me  know.*  I  have  the  account,  and  will  copy  it  off — to  send  as  soon 
as  I  hear  that  it  may  suit  your  plan — if  I  live. 

Very  truly  yours,  P.  Wroth. 

H.  W.  Smith,  Esq. 

Again  he  writes : 

We  have  a  life-size  painting  (bust)  of  Dr.  Smith  in  the  Library  at  Washington  Col- 
lege. It  was  painted  by  W.  W.  McLane,  from  a  print  in  a  volume  of  Dr.  Smith's 
sermons,  which  belonged  to  me,  and  very  closely  resembles,  I  think,  the  likeness  you 
sent  me.  The  painting  was  retouched  by  Unger,  a  distinguished  portrait  painter  of 
Pennsylvania — a  native  of  Prussia. 

Dr,  Wroth  had  been  married  four  times.  He  died  at  Baltimore, 
June  13,  1879,  in  his  94th  year. 


No.  VI. — Page  324. 


The  Hon.  Thomas  Willing,  Esq. 

It  was  my  hope  to  be  able  to  present  a  somewhat  full  biographical 
sketch  of  this  distinguished  citizen  of  Philadelphia.  I  find  myself, 
however,  unable  to  do  so.     The  following  genealogical  notice,  which  is 

*  For  this  account  see  Vol.  II.,  page  308. 


506  APPENDIX. 

understood  to  come  from  the  papers  of  one  of  the  most  eminent  gene- 
alogists of  our  city,  now  for  some  years  deceased,  and  who  contem- 
plated preparing,  and  did  in  part  prepare,  bestowing  much  labor  on  it, 
"A  Dictionary  of  our  Philadelphia  Genealogies,"  may  in  part  supply  the 
loss;  and  I  have  the  greater  satisfaction  in  presenting  it  in  these  volumes 
since  a  portion  of  it,  the  poetical  tribute  to  an  early  member  of  the 
family,  is  from  the  pen  of  my  ancestor,  Dr.  Smith;  whose  ready  talents, 
often  called  on  in  this  way,  rarely  found  a  worthier  subject  for  their 
exercise.  The  Willings  belonged  to  the  Proprietary  party,*  and  until 
Dr.  Smith  was  displaced  from  the  college  by  the  confiscatory  act  of 
1779,  were  munificent  friends  of  that  institution.  On  these  accounts, 
as  for  others,  they  were  highly  valued  by  Dr.  Smith. 

The  Willings  came  into  England  from  the  neighboring  district  of 
Wales.  The  name,  which  in  its  present  form  is  not  a  common  one 
either  in  England  or  America,  has  been  regarded,  on  traditional  report, 
as  a  change  upon  that  of  Wellyn,  or  Llewellyn. 

Joseph  Willing,  of  Gloucestershire,  England,  married,  July  1,  1672, 
Elizabeth  Plaver,  by  which  lady  (who  died  October  4,  1675)  he  had 
issue : 

(1)  George,  born  September  12,  1673. 

(2)  Joseph,  born  September  22,  1675. 

He  married,  secondly,  May  24,  1676,  Ava  Lowle,  of  Gloucester,  an 
heiress  of  ancient  family  and  of  good  estates,  descended  to  her  through 
several  generations  from  her  Saxon  ancestors.  By  this  lady,  whose 
arms,  in  place  of  the  proper  arms  of  his  own  family,  he  took  with  her 
estates,  and  who  died  December  31,  171 7,  he  had  issue,  six  children, 
among  whom  were  Mary,  born  June  3,  1678;  married,  October  11, 
1705,  to  Stephen  Burcomb,  of  Monmouth,  by  whom  she  had  issue: 

(1)  Ann. 

(2)  Thomas,  of  whom  presently. 

(3)  Richard,  born  May  26,  1681  ;  died  September  6,  1736,  and  is 
buried  in  the  Mayor's  Chapel  at  Bristol;  married,  February  21,  1790, 
Mary  Syms,  by  which  lady  he  had  issue,  three  children,  among  whom 
were 

(1)  Charles,  born  November  23,  1712;    married  December  22, 
1735,  Chadery  Tudsbury. 

(2)  Mary  Syms,  born  May  2,  1725 ;  died  at  Temple  Cloud,  in  the 

*  Mr.  Thomas  Willing  was  one  of  the  persons  who,  along  with  Lynford  Lardner, 
Richard  Hockley,  William  Peters  and  some  others,  "  applauded"  when  Dr.  Smith, 
A.  D.  1758,  had  his  great  quarrel  with  the  Quaker  Assembly,  and  were  arrested  by 
order  of  the  Assembly  for  a  breach  of  privilege.     See  Vol.  L,  p.  177. 


APPENDIX.  507 

city  of  Somerset,  being  the  last  survivor  of  her  family  of  the  name  of 
Willing  in  that  district  of  country. 

Thomas  Willing,  the  oldest  son  of  Joseph  and  Anne  Willing,  born 
January  16,  1679-80,  visited  America  with  his  younger  brother 
Richard,  first  in  1720.  Returning  to  Bristol,  England,  he  died  in 
that  the  city  of  his  residence,  1760.  He  married,  July  16,  1704,  Anne, 
granddaughter,  on  her  paternal  side,  of  Major-General  Thomas  Har- 
rison, a  lawyer  of  the  Inns  of  Court,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
Major-General  in  Cromwell's  time,  one  of  the  judges  who  sat  on  the 
trial  of  King  Charles  I. ;  also  granddaughter  on  her  mother's  side,  as 
has  been  traditionally  said,  though  this  is  not  so  certain,  we  believe,  to 
Simon  Mayne  (more  properly  written  Meyn),  a  gentleman  of  Lincoln- 
shire, a  principal  actor  in  Cromwell's  time,  and  another  of  the  persons 
who  sat  on  the  trial  of  this  unfortunate  monarch.  By  this  lady,  who 
was  born  in  1684  and  died  in  1747,  and  whose  character,  distinguished 
by  sweetness  of  temper,  by  great  accomplishment,  and  by  deep  piety, 
seems  to  have  been  "dulcified"  in  its  flow  of  two  generations  from 
"the  hard,  acidulous,  metallic  tincture"  of  its  Puritan  and  military 
spring,  he  had  issue,  among  other  children, 

(1)  Charles,  of  whom  presently. 

(2)  Thomas,  who  resided  in  the  Temple,  London,  and  is  hereafter 
spoken  of. 

(3)  Dorothy,  married Hand,  in  England,  where  she  remained. 

Charles   Willing,   whom  we  may  regard   as   the    founder  of  the 

American  family  (he  having  been  the  first  who  permanently  resided 
here),  born  May  18,  17 10,  was  taken  to  Philadelphia,  in  the  then 
Province  of  Pennsylvania,  at  the  age  of  18,  on  a  second  visit  to  that 
country  by  his  father,  who,  during  his  previous  residence  of  five  years 
there,  had  foreseen  its  rising  greatness,  and  was  determined  to  establish 
his  oldest  son  there,  at  Philadelphia,  its  metropolis.  In  this  city  the 
subject  of  our  notice  pursued  with  great  success  and  with  noble  fidelity 
to  its  best  principles,  the  profession  of  a  merchant,  in  which  career  he 
obtained,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  high  and  permanent  consideration 
by  the  scope,  vigor  and  forecast  of  his  understanding,  by  his  great  ex- 
ecutive power,  by  his  unspotted  integrity,  and  by  the  amenity  of  his 
disposition  and  manners.  His  enlarged  and  successful  operations,  and 
his  well-founded  credit,  assisted  in  early  establishing  with  foreign  coun- 
tries a  high  reputation  for  American  commerce ;  and  contributed  to 
give  to  the  city  of  his  adoption,  then  the  chief  city  of  the  confederacy, 
and  afterwards  the  seat  of  its  Congress,  that  reputation  for  public  honor 
and  for  private  wealth  which  it  enjoyed  at  the  opening  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  which  was  of  such  eminent  importance  to  the  nation  in  its 


508  APPENDIX. 

negotiations  with  France  and  Holland  in  the  struggles  of  that  contest. 
He  was  active  in  establishing  the  "  Philadelphia  Associators,"  in  1744, 
and  one  of  the  founders  and  first  trustees  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, a  warden  and  active  member  of  Christ  Church.  Towards  the 
close  of  his  life  he  discharged  with  dignity,  justice  and  efficiency  the 
important  functions  of  Chief  Magistrate  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  Mayor- 
alty of  which  city,  now  filling  it  for  a  second  time,  he  died,  not  yet 
having  attained  the  age  of  45  years,  respected  and  lamented  by  a 
whole  community,  November  30,  1754. 

His  death,  in  the  bloom  of  life,  was  justly  regarded  as  a  civic 
calamity  to  Philadelphia.  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  December  5, 
1754,  contains  a  tribute  to  his  memory,  with  some  elegiac  stanzas,  by 
the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  first  Provost  of  the  College  of  Phila- 
delphia.    They  are  in  these  words  : 

Last  Saturday,  after  a  short  illness,  departed  this  life,  in  the  45th  year  of  his  age, 
Charles  Willing,  Esq.,  mayor  of  this  city.  As  it  may  be  truly  said  that  this  commu- 
nity had  not  a  more  useful  member,  his  death  is  justly  lamented  as  a  public  loss  to  his 
country,  as  well  as  an  almost  irretrievable  loss  to  his  family  and  friends. 

In  the  character  of  a  magistrate,  he  was  patient,  indefatigable,  and  actuated  by  a 
steady  zeal  for  justice.  As  a  merchant,  it  was  thought  that  no  person  amongst  us  un- 
derstood commerce  in  general,  and  the  trading  interests  of  the  Province  in  particular, 
better  than  he ;  and  his  success  in  business  was  proportionably  great.  \s  a  friend,  he 
was  faithful,  candid  and  sincere.  As  a  husband  and  parent,  few  ever  exceeded  him 
in  tenderness  and  affection.  Being  himself  a  sincere  Christian,  he  was  strictly  atten- 
tive to  the  education  of  his  children  in  every  virtuous  qualification;  and  in  a  particular 
manner  he  was  remarkable  in  the  discharge  of  that  essential  part  of  a  parent's  duty,  so 
little  considered— a  regular  attendance,  together  with  his  numerous  family,  on  the 
public  worship  of  God.  And  for  this,  accordingly,  they  will  now  have  reason  to  bless 
his  memory ;  since  the  impressions  thereby  received  will  go  farther  to  teach  them  how 
to  bear  their  present  heavy  affliction,  and  recommend  them  to  the  favor  of  the  world 
(degenerate  as  it  is),  than  all  the  external  advantages — all  the  fortune,  graces  and  good 
nature  he  has  left  them  possessed  of. 

ODE  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  CHARLES  WILLING,  Esq. 

1.  Once  more  I  seek  the  cypress  shade, 
To  weave  a  garland  for  the  dead, 

Alone,  dejected,  wan  ! 
Shall  Willing  quit  this  mortal  strife, 
And  not  a  verse  show  him,  in  life 

And  death — An  Honest  Man? 

2.  Forbid  it  every  grateful  muse — 
The  world  itself  will  patriot-views, 

With  transient  tears,  commend; 
But  nobler  far  your  task,  ye  Nine! 
'Tis  yours  th'  immortal  wreath  to  twine, 

And  consecrate  each  friend. 


APPENDIX.  5°9 

3.  Be  present  then — this  boon  bestow ! 
A  friend  is  lost !     Now  bind  his  brow 

And  bid  each  age  proclaim 
How  first  among  th'  illustrious  band 
That  fix'd  your  mansions  in  this  land, 

Stands  Willing's  honor'd  name.* 

4.  Bid  helpless  innocence  reliev'd, 
The  widow's  hopeless  state  retriev'd, 

And  orphan's  right  restor'd — 
Tell  how  he  graced  the  judgment  seat,-)- 
Still  incorrupt  and  firmly  great, 

Alike  to  slave  or  lord. 

5.  How  nicely  he  the  various  plan 

Of  bounteous  commerce^  knew  to  scan, 

And  raise  his  country's  weal — 
Her  trade  by  him  enlarg'd,  her  good 
Thro'  every  secret  maze  pursu'd, 

To  distant  times  will  tell. 

6.  What  more  he  did  to  bless  the  State, 
And  all  the  deeds  of  life  complete, 

Should  any  seek  to  know  ! 
Bid  them  behold  his  num'rous  race, 
And  read  in  each  illumined  face 

What  language  cannot  show  ! 

7.  Bid  them  look  up  to  Celia's  eyes, 
Where  all  the  soul  of  softness  lies, 

And  reason  beams  through  truth. 
Or,  should  this  risk  be  deem'd  too  bold, 
Bid  them  each  manly  grace  behold, 

Rip'ning  in  Damon's  youth. 

8.  Damon,  attend  !  proceed  to  shine  ! 
To  fill  a  father's  place  be  thine, 

And  soothe  a  mother's  care  ! 
This  done — still  mindful  of  his  hearse, 
Whose  doom  was  sudden,  write  this  verse, 

And  drop  a  filial  tear. 

EPITAPH. 

If  to  be  all  the  wise  and  good  commend, 
The  tender  husband,  father  and  the  friend; 
At  home  belov'd  and  blest,  esteem'd  abroad; 
Studious  to  serve  mankind,  and  please  his  God; 
If  this  from  death  one  useful  life  could  save, 
Thou  hadst  not  read  that  Willing  fills  this  grave  ! 


*  As  a  trustee  of  the  Academy.  f  As  a  magistrate.  J  As  a  merchant. 


5IO  APPENDIX. 

MORAL. 

But  ah  !  what  boots  it  that,  with  ceaseless  toil, 
We  court  renown,  or  bask  in  fortune's  smile? 
In  midst  of  all  our  fond  enchanting  dreams, 
E'en  while  our  souls  are  bent  on  patriot  schemes, 
Death  lurks  behind  to  cut  life's  thin-spun  thread; 
Then  swift  as  noontide  shadows  all  is  fled ! 
One  only  thought  remains  to  cheer  the  mind — 
If  human  aims  are  just — "That  Heaven  is  kind!" 

This  Charles  Willing  built,  a.  d.  1749,  the  large  and  imposing  dwel- 
ling house,  till  lately  standing,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Willing's 
alley  and  Third  street,  whose  character  and  history  is  eloquently  dwelt 
on  by  Dr.  Griswold  in  the  "Republican  Court."  An  engraving  on 
wood,  giving  a  good  representation  of  it  and  its  spacious  grounds,  is  in 
"  Watson's  Annals,"  Vol.  II.,  page  619,  Hazard's  Edition. 

He  married,  in  Philadelphia,  January  21,  1730,  Anne,  daughter  of 
Joseph  and  Abigail  Shippen,  and  granddaughter  of  Edward  Shippen,  a 
man  of  pre-eminent  consideration  in  the  early  history  of  Pennsylvania; 
Speaker,  in  1695,  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Province;  appointed  by  its 
charter,  in  1701,  first  mayor  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia;  President  from 
1702  to  1704  of  the  Governor's  Council,  and  appointed  by  William 
Penn,  proprietary  of  the  Province,  to  be  one  of  the  executors  of  his 
will.  By  this  lady,  who  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  August  5,  1710, 
died  in  the  same  place,  June  23,  1791,  he  had  issue,  eleven  children, 
among  whom  were  : 

(1)  Thomas,  of  whom  presently. 

(2)  Ann,   born    July  10,   1733,  died   January  2,    1812;    married, 
February  8,  1762,  to  Tench  Francis,  of  Philadelphia. 

(3)  Dorothy,  born  July  16,  1735;  died  in  Scotland,  1782. 

(4)  Mary,  born  September  24,  1740,  died  March  28,  1814;   mar- 
ried William  Byrd,  Esq.,  of  Westhover,  in  Virginia. 

(5)  Elizabeth,  born  February  10,  1742,  died  1830;  married,  August 
7,  1769,  Samuel  Powel. 

(6)  Richard,  born  January  2,  1744,  died  January  30,  1798. 

(7)  Margaret,  born  January  15,  1753,  died  September  21,  1816; 
married  Robert  Hare. 

Thomas,  the  oldest  son,  was  taken  by  his  father,  at  a  tender  age,  to 
England,  and  educated  in  liberal  studies  at  Bath,  under  the  eye  of  his 
grandmother,  Anne  Willing,  already  spoken  of.  He  afterwards  went 
to  London,  where  he  was  placed  under  the  care  of  his  uncle,  Thomas 
Willing,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  of  fortune,  abilities  and  reputation,  residing 
oi  the  Temple.     Under   his  uncle's  supervision,   the  subject  of  our 


APPENDIX.  5  1 1 

present  notice  was  entered  a  student  of  law  in  that  venerable  seat  of 
legal  learning,  and  pursued  for  several  months  with  great  assiduity  the 
studies  of  a  barrister.  Returning  to  his  native  city,  the  opulence,  pow- 
erful connections  and  established  reputation  of  his  father's  commercial 
house,  pointed  to  commerce  as  a  profession.  And  on  the  death  of  his 
father,  in  1754,  he  assumed  the  exclusive  control  of  that  gentleman's 
large  concerns.  He  associated  with  himself  the  late  Hon.  Robert 
Morris,  Esq.,  afterwards  well  known  as  "the  Financier  of  the  Revolu- 
tion," but  separated  himself  from  that  gentleman  upon  Mr.  Morris's 
great  enterprises  of  landed  purchase,  which,  ending  disastrously,  clouded 
the  latter  years  of  his  distinguished  and  useful  life.  Mr.  Willing  was 
in  many  places  of  public  trust  in  the  Province,  occupying  among  them 
a  seat  on  the  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  was  among  the 
persons  who  early  opposed  the  unconstitutional  measures  of  Great 
Britain.  His  name  stands  at  the  head  of  that  great  list  of  merchants 
and  traders  who  signed  the  non-importation  resolutions  of  1764.  He 
was  President  of  the  Provincial  Meeting  of  Deputies,  chosen  by  the 
several  counties  of  Pennsylvania,  which  met  in  Philadelphia,  July  15, 
1774,  one  of  whose  resolves  was  in  these  memorable  words: 

That,  although  a  suspension  of  the  commerce  of  this  large  trading  Province  with 
Great  Britain  would  greatly  distress  multitudes  of  our  industrious  inhabitants,  yet  that 
sacrifice  and  a  much  greater  we  are  ready  to  offer  for  the  preservation  of  our  liberties. 
But  in  tenderness  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  as  well  as  of  this  country,  and  in 
hopes  that  our  just  remonstrances  will  at  length  reach  the  ears  of  our  gracious  sover- 
eign, and  be  no  longer  treated  with  contempt  by  any  of  our  fellow-subjects  in  England, 
it  is  our  earnest  desire  that  the  Congress  should  first  try  the  gentler  mode  of  stating 
our  grievances  and  making  a  firm  and  decent  claim  of  redress. 

Mr.  Willing  was  in  the  Congress  of  1775,  and  in  that  one  more  cele- 
brated, though  composed  of  less  able  men,  of  1  776.  He  voted  steadily 
and  fearlessly  against  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  considering 
that  he  had  not  received  power  from  the  assembly,  by  whom  he  was 
appointed  a  delegate,  to  vote  for  a  revolution;  and  that,  whether  or  not, 
the  time  had  not  arrived  in  which  Pennsylvania  should  come  into  the 
measure.  He  remained  also  in  the  city  during  the  occupation  of  it  by 
the  British  army.  But  when  Sir  William  Howe  sent  a  person  to  ad- 
minister the  oath  of  allegiance  to  George  III.,  he  refused  to  take  it. 
For  all  this  no  one  ever  questioned  his  political  integrity;  though  many 
did  that  of  men  about  him  who  were  vigorous  in  declaring  their  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  of  independence.  During  the  session  of  the  Congress 
of  1774  he  was  in  constant  and  confidential  intercourse  of  the  great 
men  who  strove  to  make  Great  Britain  yield  to  the  solicitations  of  the 


512  APPENDIX. 

colonies,  and  repeal  her  obnoxious  acts  of  legislation.  John  Adams, 
after  speaking,  in  his  Diary,  of  numerous  persons  of  great  fame  whom 
he  met  in  Philadelphia  during  the  session  of  the  Congress,  says: 

Sunday,  1 1  October,  1774. 
There  is  such  a  quick  and  constant  succession  of  new  scenes,  characters,  persons 
and  events  turning  up  before  me,  that  I  can't  keep  any  regular  account.  .  .  .  Dined  at 
Mr.  Willing's,  who  is  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  here,  and  the  gentlemen  from 
Virginia,  Maryland  and  New  York  a  most  splendid  feast  again;  turtle  and  every, 
thing  else.     Mr.  Willing  is  the  most  sociable,  agreeable  man  of  all.* 

When,  in  the  year  1781,  with  a  view  of  enabling  the  United  States  of 
America  to  carry  on  the  war  for  independence,  the  Bank  of  North  America 
was  chartered  by  Congress — a  time  when  our  finances  were  almost  des- 
perate, when  public  credit  was  at  an  end,  when  no  means  were  afforded 
adequate  to  the  public  expense,  when  the  money  and  credit  of  the  United 
States  were  at  so  low  an  ebb  that  some  members  of  the  Board  of  War  de- 
clared that  they  had  not  the  means  of  sending  an  express  to  the  army — 
it  was  made  a  part  of  the  enactment  by  that  body,  such  was  the  confidence 
had  by  it  in  his  integrity,  skill  and  solid  wealth,  that  Thomas  Willing 
be  the  present  President  of  the  Institution.  At  a  later  day,  March  26, 
1782,  when  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  came  to  act  on  the  charter,  cer- 
tain members  of  the  Assembly  opposed  this  feature  of  the  enactment, 
arguing  that  Mr.  Willing  had  voted  against  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, had  remained  in  the  city  during  the  occupation,  etc.,  etc. 
"We  think,"  said  they,  "that  loading  with  honors  a  man  who  so  lately 
contributed  what  he  could  to  enslave  his  country,  is  a  discouragement 
to  the  Whigs,  is  a  wound  to  the  cause  of  patriotism,  and  is  trampling  on 
the  blood  of  those  heroes  and  martyrs  who  have  fallen  in  the  defence 
of  our  liberty."  But,  upon  the  question  being  taken,  the  objectors — 
country  members,  and  mostly  of  the  Democratic  side — were  over- 
whelmed, and,  by  a  vote  of  thirty-eight  to  sixteen,  the  Congressional 
enactment  left  undisturbed.  Mr.  Willing  entered  at  once  upon  the 
Presidency  of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  and  until  taken  from  it, 
eight  or  nine  years  afterwards,  to  be  placed  in  the  higher  office  of 
President  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  then  lately  chartered  by 
the  Federal  government,  administered  it  with  the  most  satisfactory 
results;  its  dividends  being  for  years  of  a  magnitude  previously  unheard 
of  in  the  history  of  banks.  The  bank  to  this  day  maintains  the  highest 
reputation.      His  administration  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was 

♦Among  "the  gentlemen  from  Virginia,  Maryland  and  New  York,"  were  George 
Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  Peyton  Randolph,  William  Paca,  Samuel  Chase,  John 
Jay  and  Philip  Livingston. — Works,  Vol.  II.,  page  378. 


Arn-ixDix.  513 

not  less  beneficent;  and  when,  in  1816,  having  been  hunted  down  by  a 
political  party,  its  charter  ceased  and  its  affairs  were  wound  up,  it  paid 
in  gold,  during  the  prevalence  of  a  paper  currency  which  placed  gold  at 
a  high  premium,  $116  for  each  <Uoo  of  its  capital. 

We  have  not  a  sufficient  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Willing  to  give  any  particular  account  of  his  enterprises  in  trade.  They 
were  of  the  largest  and  most  successful  kind  in  that  day,  and  we  believe 
chiefly  with  the  Indies. 

Mr.  Morris  has  justly  been  called  the  Financier  of  the  Revolution; 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  overestimate  his  services  to  the  country  in  the  dark 
days  of  1780-81.  But  it  was  largely  owing  to  the  solid  wealth,  in- 
herited and  acquired,  of  his  partner,  Mr.  Willing,  put  into  the  partner- 
ship of  Willing  &  Morris,  by  Mr.  Willing;  to  the  executive  capacity  of 
that  gentleman;  to  his  great  discretion  and  to  the  various  qualities,  not 
always  easily  defined,  but  always  easily  perceived  as  surely  felt,  which 
go  to  make  up  that  combination  which  gives  weight  and  influence  to 
men  in  the  community  where  they  live,  that  Mr.  Morris  was  able  to  do 
the  great  things  that  he  did.  The  National  Bank  of  North  America 
was  the  agent  by  which  Mr.  Morris  produced  his  wonderful  effects  upon 
the  Revolution;  and  of  that  bank  Mr.  Willing  was  the  head,  both 
titular  and  real. 

The  following  inscription  is  from  the  pen  of  the  Hon.  Horace  Bin- 
ney,  upon  a  monument  in  the  grounds  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 
in  which,  along  with  both  his  parents,  his  wife  and  many  of  his  de- 
scendants, the  subject  of  this  part  of  our  notice  is  interred : 

"  In  memory  of 

Thomas  Willing,  Esq., 

Born  19th  of  December,  1 73 1 ,  O.  s.  :   died  19th  of  January,  1821, 

Aged  89  years  and  30  days. 

"  This  excellent  man,  in  all  the  relations  of  private  life  and  in  various 
stations  of  high  public  trust,  deserved  and  acquired  the  devoted  affec- 
tion of  his  family  and  friends,  and  the  universal  respect  of  his  fellow- 
citizens. 

"From  1754  to  1807  he  successively  held  the  offices  of  Secretary  to  the 
Congress  of  Delegates  at  Albany,  Mayor  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  her 
Representative  in  the  General  Assembly,  President  of  the  Provincial 
Congress,  Delegate  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  President  of 
the  first  chartered  bank  in  America,  and  President  of  the  first  Bank 
of  the  United  States. 

"  With  these  public  duties  he  united  the  business  of  an  active,  enter- 
prising and  successful  merchant,  in  which  pursuit,  for  sixty  years,  his 
life  was  rich  in  examples  of  the  influence  of  probity,  fidelity  and  perse- 
verance, upon  the  stability  of  commercial  establishments,  and  upon  that 
33 


514  'APPENDIX. 

which  was  his  distinguished  reward  upon  earth,  public  consideration 
and  esteem.  His  profound  adoration  of  the  Great  Supreme,  and  his 
deep  sense  of  dependence  on  his  mercy,  in  life  and  in  death,  gave  him, 
at  the  close  of  his  protracted  years,  the  hope  of  a  superior  one  in 
Heaven." 

The  following  obituary  notice  in  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  February 
10,  1 78 1,  is  upon  the  wife  of  Thomas  Willing,  cf  the  family  name,  wc 
believe,  of  McCall : 

On  Monday  last  died,  greatly  and  deservedly  regretted,  Mrs.  Ann  Willing,  wife 
of  Thomas  Willing,  Esq.,  and  her  remains  were,  on  Wednesday,  interred  in  Christ 
Church  burying-ground,  with  the  tribute  of  many  a  tear  to  her  memory. 

With  every  virtue  that  can  adorn  the  female  character,  she  possessed  the  most 
amiable  and  endearing  manners.  It  is  not  the  frail  memorial,  inscribed  on  the  fugitive 
page,  that  can  do  her  justice.  A  more  durable  monument  of  her  virtue  and  her  worth 
is  erected  in  the  hearts  of  her  surviving  friends,  stamped  in  such  strong  characters  that 
nothing  but  the  passing  hand  of  death  can  ever  efface  them. 

I  have  seen  some  handsome  lines  to  the  memory  of  Anne  Willing, 
of  the  family  name  of  Shippen,  wife  of  Charles  "Willing  and  mother  of 
Thomas  Willing,  said  to  be  from  the  pen  of  the  well-known  and  ac- 
complished Mrs.  Ferguson,  of  Graeme  Park.  I  regret  not  to  be  able  to 
recover  them. 


No.  VII.— Page  350. 


Samuel  Blodget,  Jr. 

[By  Lorin  Blodget,  Esq.] 

Samuel  Blodget,  Jr.,  who  married  Rebecca,  the  favorite  daughter 
of  Rev.  William  Smith,  in  1792,  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Blodget,*  of 
Concord,  N.  H.,  who  was  born  at  Woburn,  Mass.,  but  subsequently 
resided  at  Concord,  and  was  distinguished  as  a  member  of  the  expe- 

*  Samuel  Blodget,  Sr.,  of  Woburn  and  Concord,  was  grandson  of  Thomas  Blodget, 
of  London,  merchant,  who  came  over  in  the  ship  "  Increase,"  in  1635,  and  who  was 
sworn  in  "  Freeman"  of  Boston,  March  3,  1635.  lie  was  accompanied  by  his  wife, 
Susanna,  and  his  infant  sons,  Daniel  and  Samuel,  from  whom  are  descended  all  bear- 
ing this  name  in  the  United  States.  See  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  Johnson's  Universal 
Cyclopaedia,  etc.,  for  biographical  notices  of  Samuel  Blodget,  of  Woburn  and  Concord  ; 
also  for  notices  of  Benjamin  Thompson,  afterward  Count  Rumford,  who  was  himself 
a  native  of  Woburn ;   his  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Susanna  Blodget,  was  a 


APPENDIX.  5  1 5 

dition  against  Louisburg,  in  1745,  and  as  Judge  in  Hillsboro'  county, 
N.  H.  ;  also  as  an  extensive  manufacturer  at  Blodget's  Mills,  near 
Concord,  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  supplied  the  patriot  ser- 
vice with  the  product  of  his  mills. 

Samuel  Blodget,  Jr.,  was  born  at  Woburn,  in  1755,  an^  at  the  time 
of  the  encampment  of  the  patriot  forces  at  Cambridge,  in  July,  1775, 
entered  into  the  military  service,  and  became  acquainted  with  the  new 
Commander-in-Chief,  General  Washington,  with  whom  his  father  was 
also  personally  intimate,  and  afterwards  a  correspondent.  He  was  es- 
pecially interested  in  the  two  favorite  projects  then  entertained  by  Gen- 
eral Washington,  the  founding  of  a  "federal  city,"  or  national  capital, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  national  university;  and  after  three  years  of 
arduous  service  in  the  army,  a  part  of  the  time  on  the  staff  of  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  left  the  service  in  broken  health  in  1778,  and 
engaged  in  the  East  India  trade,  in  Boston,  visiting  Europe  in  17S4, 
and  again  in  1790.  These  visits  and  much  of  his  time  and  efforts  for 
many  years  were  devoted  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  great  enterprises 
which  enlisted  his  patriotism  early  in  the  war,  and  subsequently  brought 
him  to  Philadelphia  and  to  Washington,  and  induced  him  to  invest  his 
entire  fortune  in  the  founding  of  the  city  of  Washington  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  national  university.  The  account  of  his  earlier  efforts  in 
this  direction  is  briefly  given  in  a  work  published  at  Washington  in 
1806,*  and   he  was   almost   alone  among   prominent   citizens    in    the 


daughter  of  Samuel  Blodget,  Sr.  (Savage's  Genealogical  Dictionary;  Bond's  Genealogy 
of  Watertown,  etc.) 

Samuel  Blodget  published  A  Prospective  Flan  of  the  Battle  near  Lake  George, 
on  the  Eighth  Day  of  September,  1755,  with  an  Explanation  thereof;  containing 
a  full,  though  short,  History  of  that  important  affair.  By  Samuel  Blodget,  occasionally 
at  the  camp  when  the  battle  was  fought.  Boston,  N.  E.  :  Richard  Draper.  MDCCLV., 
4to.     Title,  pp.  5.     Plan.     London  :  T.  Jefferys.     MDCCLVI.     4to,  pp.  (2),  5. 

*  "  The  writer  needed  not  the  recommendation  of  his  former  commander  to  persuade 
him  to  purchase,  as  he  did  in  1791,  property  to  the  amount  of  above  $100,000  in  and 
adjoining  the  city,  one  day  to  become  the  noblest  of  the  universe.  Of  the  first  pur- 
chase he  made  he  gave  above  1,500  lots  to  the  United  States,  or  one-half  of  his 
property,  in  common  with  other  proprietors  of  the  lands,  on  the  site  selected  for  the 
permanent  seat  of  the  government." — (Economica,  page  24.) 

"  From  the  time  of  the  first  mention  of  a  federal  city  and  a  national  university,  every 
opportunity  to  expand  the  mind  of  the  writer  has  been  embraced.  The  opportunities 
for  inquiry  were  but  few,  until  when,  in  an  impaired  state  of  health,  originating  in  the 
army  by  the  severe  campaigns  of  1775  to  1778,  occasioned  in  1784  a  visit  to  Europe, 
where  no  time  was  lost  to  search  for  such  information  as  was  deemed  worth  transport- 
ing to  America.  After  a  second  visit  to  Europe,  the  writer  returned  in  1791  and 
informed  President  Washington  of  the  plans  he  had  attempted  from  the  best  points 
onlv  of  the  ancient  and  modern  cities  of  the  old  world,  and  adapted  to  his  ideas  for  a 


5 16  ATTEND  IX. 

Northern  States  to  join  his  fortunes  to  the  enterprises  on  which  Wash- 
ington had  set  his  heart.  At  the  time  of  the  original  action  by  Con- 
gress, authorizing  the  establishment  of  the  national  capital  on  the 
Potomac,  no  money  was  appropriated  and  no  expenditure  directed  or 
authorized  by  the  general  government  itself.  It  was  a  permissive  act 
merely,  providing  that  if  the  friends  of  the  site  on  the  Potomac  should 
found  a  city  and  erect  public  buddings  there  fit  for  the  occupation  of 
Congress  before  the  year  1800,  then  the  seat  of  government  should  be 
removed  to  and  established  at  that  city.  Beyond  this  the  work  was 
that  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  the  States  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and 
their  personal  friends  in  the  Northern  States.  The  commissioners  au- 
thorized to  conduct  the  negotiations  began  their  work  March  11,  1  79 1 , 
and  formed  an  agreement  with  the  proprietors  of  the  lands  chosen  as 
the  site  of  the  city,  March  31  of  the  same  year,  by  which  it  was  stipu- 
lated that  one-half  of  the  lots  and  squares  into  which  these  lands  should 
be  laid  out,  should  remain  the  property  of  the  original  owners,  and 
one-half  should  become  the  property  of  the  new  city,  and  be  sold  to 
raise  money  to  erect  the  public  buildings.  Mr.  Blodget  at  that  time 
purchased  500  acres,  being  one  of  the  largest  of  the  private  properties 
on  the  site,  and  it  was  duly  laid  out  in  squares  and  lots  under  the  terms 
of  the  agreement.  He  also  purchased  several  hundred  single  lots  at  a 
public  sale  of  lots  held  for  the  benefit  of  the  city,  in  October,  1791, 
being  much  the  largest  individual  purchaser  at  the  sale,  and  bringing 
to  the  new  city  several  of  his  personal  friends,  from  Boston,  as  pur- 
chasers. The  State  of  Virginia  had  appropriated  $70,000,  and  Mary- 
land $120,000,  toward  the  cost  of  the  Capitol  and  President's 
House,  but  no  money  being   obtainable    from   these    State  appropria- 


federal  heart  or  capital  for  his  country.  But  his  views  for  the  university  were  what  he 
most  pmed,  designed  in  part  at  the  Hague,  and  completed  at  Oxford,  where  he  had 
all  the  universities  of  ancient  and  modern  times  to  guide  his  pencil." 

The  suggestion  as  to  a  national  university  was  first  made  at  the  camp  at  Cambridge, 
in  October,  1775,  "when  Major  William  Blodget  went  to  the  quarters  of  General 
Washington  to  complain  of  the  ruinous  state  of  the  colleges  from  the  conduct  of  the 
nv.litia  quartered  therein.  The  writer  of  this  being  in  company  with  his  friend  and 
relation,  and  hearing  General  Greene  join  in  lamenting  the  then  ruinous  state  of  the 
eldest  seminary  of  Massachusetts,  observed,  merely  to  console  the  company  of  friends, 
that  to  make  amends  for  these  injuries,  after  our  war  he  hoped  we  should  erect  a  noble 
university,  at  which  all  the  youth  of  the  world  might  be  proud  to  receive  instruction. 
What  was  thus  pleasantly  said,  Washington  immediately  replied  to  ■  '  Young  man, you 
ai  c  a  piophet,  inspired  to  speak  'what  I  am  confident  will  one  day  be  realized.'  "  The 
original  of  the  design  for  this  university  is  in  the  Library  of  Congress  at  Washington. 
-{Ibid.,  pp.  21-23  ) 


APPENDIX.  517 

tions,*  a  plan  for  a  general  loan  of  $500,000  was  proposed  by  Mr. 
Blodget,  and  carried  out  in  part  by  the  commissioners:  500  bonds  of 
£1,000  each  being  prepared,  and  Mr.  Blodget  advancing  $10,000  of 
his  own  money, f  which  sum  was  actually  paid  to  them  July  17,  1792. 

At  this  time  the  plans  for  the  President's  House  and  Capitol  were  so 
far  matured  that  the  foundations  of  each  were  begun,  and,  as  it  hap- 
pened, these  advances  by  Mr.  Blodget  were  directly  applied  to  that 
purpose.  \ 

During  this  and  the  following  year  Mr.  Blodget  gave  his  entire  time 
to  the  interests  of  the  new  city,  buying  very  largely  himself,  and  in- 
ducing many  of  his  Boston  friends  to  buy  of  the  government  lots  sold 
on  October  8,  1792,  for  which  the  commissioners  tendered  him  their 
thanks,  officially,  in  letters  to  the  President.  Soon  after  this  sale  Mr. 
Jefferson  suggested  to  the  commissioners  the  appointment  of  a  Super- 
visor, or  General  Superintendent  of  the  work  of  erecting  the  public 
buildings,  naming  Mr.  Blodget  as  a  suitable  person,  and  on  June  5^ 
1793,   the   commissioners  duly  appointed   him   Supervisor  as   follows: 

" You  are  retained  for  one  year,  commencing  the  1st  instant,  as 

Supervisor  of  the  buildings  and  in  general  of  the  affairs  committed  to 
our  care,  for  which  you  are  to  receive  ^600,  payable  in  money  or  in 
lots  at  their  just  value,"  etc. 

In  pursuance  of  this  appointment,  he  entered  at  once  on  the  most 
active  duties,  the  greatest  difficulty  existing  in  obtaining  the  money 
appropriated  by  the  States  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  only  a  small  por- 
tion as  yet  being  received.  In  this  emergency,  and  as  the  project  of  a 
general  loan  on  pledge  of  the  real  estate  of  the  city  had   failed,  owing 

*  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  Secretary  of  Stale,  writes  to  the  Commissioners,  May  II,  1792: 
"  I  had  informed  you  that  the  catastrophe  among  the  paper  dealers  would  retard  the 
completion  of  the  loan.  I  now  enclose  you  a  letter  from  Mr.  Blodget,  by  which  you 
will  perceive  its  effect  to  he  greater  than  he  had  at  first  supposed.  He  thinks  that  the 
payment  of  June,  which  if  the  loan  had  been  filled  up,  would  have  been  of  $50,000, 
must  now  be  thrown  back  and  consolidated  with  that  of  November,  except  as  to 
$10,000  which  he  undertakes  to  pay  on  the  15th  of  June  for  eighty  shares  he  takes 
himself,  and  twenty  shares  he  has  disposed  of.  After  consultation  with  ihe  President 
we  concluded  nothing  better  was  to  be  done  than  to  leave  the  matter  in  Mr.  Blodget's 
hands.  I  therefore  yesterday  delivered  his  500  warrants  for  which  I  enclose  his 
receipt." 

f  See  letter  of  Thomas  Jeffer=on  to  the  commissioners,  dated  at  Philadelphia,  July 
II,  1792,  in  which  he  says:  "I  enclose  you  a  letter  received  from  him  (Samuel 
Blodget)  this  day,  informing  you  that  the  deposit  of  $10,000  is  made  in  the  Boston 
Bank,  and  will  be  paid  to  your  orders." 

\  See  also  letter  of  acknowledgment  of  the  commissioners  to  Samuel  Blodget,  July 
1 8,  1792,  in  which  they  accept  the  money,  and  advise  him  that  the  foundations  of  the 
buildings  will  at  once  be  entered  upon. 


5  IS  APPENDIX. 

to  the  general  financial  depression,  the  commissioners  resorted  to  a 
lottery,  which  was  drawn  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year,  and  yielded  a 
moderate  sum  for  the  use  of  the  new  city.  A  second  lottery  was  less 
fortunate,  and  it  resulted  in  claims  which  embarrassed  the  commission- 
ers and  their  agent  for  years  afterwards.  Mr.  Blodget  ascribes  the 
losses  and  misfortunes  of  the  new  city  then  and  subsequently  to  the 
refusal  of  Congress  to  guarantee  any  loans  or  make  any  appropriations 
for  erecting  the  public  buildings  or  laying  out  the  city.  Even  after  the 
seat  of  government  was  duly  established  there,  in  1800,  the  same  neglect 
continued,  and  Mr.  Blodget  found  himself,  as  did  other  proprietors, 
actually  unable  to  continue  the  payment  of  taxes  on  the  large  number 
of  lots  and  squares,  placed  at  a  high  valuation,  but  wholly  unsalable. 
He  paid  taxes  on  much  the  largest  amount  of  property  in  the  city  from 
1 79 1  to  1S07;  most  of  the  speculative  purchases  by  Robert  Morris, 
James  Greenleaf,  Nicholson  and  others,  were  not  kept  up  by  the  pur- 
chasers, and  ultimately  reverted  to  the  city,  and  other  proprietors  were, 
as  Mr.  Blodget  was,  nearly  ruined  by  the  burden  of  carrying  large 
properties  which  could  not  be  sold.* 

At  this  time,  or  more  particularly  in  1804  to  1806,  Mr.  Blodget  pub- 
lished several  editions  of  a  statistical  and  financial  volume,  which  had  a 
wide  reputation  and  was  frequently  quoted  in  standard  European  works. 
This  work  was  published  in  the  completest  form  in  1806,  under  the 
title  "  Economica;  A  Statistical  Manual  for  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica," pp.  202,  with  Appendix,  containing  the  first  general  tables  of 
population,  commerce,  industry  and  social  statistics,  prepared  for  gen- 
eral circulation.  This  work  has  been  frequently  quoted  as  an  excellent 
authority  for  events  of  its  time.f 

From  1793  to  1814  Mr.  Blodget  resided  chiefly  at  Washington,  al- 
though he  was  much  at  Philadelphia,  and  had  large  business  interests 
there.  He  was  active  in  promoting  the  business  interests  of  both  cities, 
was  a  large  stockholder  in  the  first  insurance  company,  marine  and  fire, 
founded  in  Philadelphia,  and  which  sustained  heavy  losses  from  the 
French  spoliations.  He  had  an  estate  in  Mantua,  West  Philadelphia, 
which  continued  in  possession  of  his  family.  In  Washington  the  fine 
mansion  on  his  original  purchase  was  located  just  north  of  the  junction 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts  avenues.  Thirty-eight  entire  squares, 


*  The  assessed  value  of  his  estate  in  Washington  in  1803  was  $75,199,  embracing 
5606.903  square  feet  of  city  lots. 

f  At  page  96  of  this  volume  will  be  found  a  letter  of  President  Washington  to  Samuel 
r>lodget,  Jr.,  written  about  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  Supervisor  at  Washington, 
complimenting  him  on  his  services  to  the  city,  and  sending  his  good  wishes  to  his 
venerable  father  at  Concord,  N.  II. 


APPENDIX,  519 

twelve  half  squares,  and  186  single  lots  were  standing  to  his  name  on 
the  assessment  books  for  many  years,  most  of  them  so  remaining  in 
1807. 

In  181 2  to  1814  his  health  was  much  broken,  and  further  misfortunes 
to  his  property  interests,  resulting  from  the  war,  induced  his  final  return 
to  Philadelphia,  in  1814,  where  he  died  in  April  of  that  year.  In 
pursuit  of  his  purpose  of  founding  a  national  university,  he  made  at  one 
time  a  large  donation  of  his  property  in  the  city  of  Washington — 1,500 
lots — and  stocks  in  various  companies  were  left  to  the  same  purpose  in 
President  Washington's  will,  at  his  death,  in  1799.  The  estimated 
value  of  these  stocks  was  $25,000,  but  in  both  cases  the  intended  dona- 
tion was  not  realized.  Several  thousand  dollars  were,  however,  de- 
posited by  Mr.  Blodget  in  a  bank  at  Georgetown,  and  a  form  of  organi- 
zation of  trustees  was  maintained  for  many  years  afterwards,  Judge 
Bushrod  Washington  being  the  principal  and  last  surviving  trustee. 

The  enterprises  and  efforts  which  engaged  his  attention  almost  from 
1775  to  the  day  of  his  death  were  peculiarly  difficult,  and  their  success 
doubtful  or  remote.  But  the  city  of  Washington,  which  was  looked  on 
as  being  impracticable  at  the  time  it  was  founded,  and  for  which  Con- 
gress then  absolutely  refused  all  aid,  was  actually  prepared  for  occupa- 
tion as  the  seat  of  government,  in  1S00,  in  a  great  degree  by  his  own 
efforts  and  sacrifices.  The  records  of  the  commissioners — Daniel  Car- 
roll, Thomas  Johnson  and  David  Stuart — are  full  of  testimony  to  the 
vital  character  of  the  aid  rendered  them  at  every  step  by  Mr.  Blodget, 
and  the  money  given  by  him  personally  was  the  first  considerable 
amount  applied  to  the  erection  of  the  two  most  necessary  structures,  the 
Capitol  and  the  President's  House. 

.  With  him  it  was  a  labor  of  love  and  a  work  of  supreme  patriotism  to 
aid  in  founding  the  city  Washington  had  chosen,  and  Congress  had 
reluctantly  permitted  Washington  and  Jefferson  to  build,  if  they  could, 
in  the  comparatively  remote  locality  on  the  Potomac.  Other  cities 
looked  on  the  effort  as  unwise,  and  opposed  it  as  being  injurious  to  their 
interests ;  but  the  commissioners,  without  money,  finally  triumphed — a 
few  devoted  friends  of  Washington,  who  became  attached  to  him  when 
in  New  England,  in  1775,  came  to  their  relief,  and  adhered  to  them  to 
the  end.  Mr.  Blodget  left  four  children  (see  genealogy).  His  portrait, 
painted  by  Trumbull,  is  in  existence.  His  remains  are  buried  in 
Christ  Church  ground,  Philadelphia. 


520  APPENDIX. 


No.  VIII.— Page  407. 


The  Hon.  Thomas  Smith. 

My  chief  knowledge  of  this  collateral  ancestor  of  my  own — a  half- 
brother  of  my  great-grandfather,  Dr.  William  Smith,  the  Provost — is 
derived  from  an  obituary  notice  of  him  in  the  United  States  Gazette 
of  April,  1809.  I  am  not  able  to  say  who  the  author  of  it  was, 
possibly  Mr.  Enos  Bronson,*  long  the  editor  of  that  paper:  a  gentleman 
of  talents  at  once  versatile,  strong  and  graceful,  with  an  education 
various  and  finished.  This  gentleman  was  an  acquaintance  and  friend 
of  Judge  Smith,  as  were  almost  all  that  high  class  of  gentlemen,  mem- 
bers of  the  bar  and  leading  Federalists  of  Philadelphia,  who  gave  tone 
to  society  in  our  city  at  that  time:  Edward  Tilghman,  William  Rawle, 
William  Lewis,  Joseph  Hopkinson,  Charles  Willing  Hare,  Horace  Bin- 
ney,  Charles  Chauncey,  John  B.  Wallace,  William  Meredith  and  others. 
Mr.  Bronson  may  very  well  have  written  it,  though  a  literary  friend 
familiar  with  his  style,  as  also  with  that  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Tilgh- 

*  Enos  Bronson,  as  we  learn  from  Mr.  Eugene  II.  Munday's  valuable  Historical  Sketch 
of  the  North  American  and  United  States  Gazette,  was  a  native  of  Waterbury,  Conn., 
and  born  March  31,  1774.  lie  was  graduated  at  Yale  College,  and  afterwards  began 
the  study  of  the  law.  He  did  not,  however,  long  continue  this  pursuit.  Removing  to 
Philadelphia,  he  became  a  teacher  in  the  Academy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
I  lis  tastes  were  towards  literature  and  political  acquisitions,  etc.  He  soon  afterwards 
(a.  D.  1801)  purchased  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  succeeding  John  Ward  Fenno 
in  the  editorship,  and  conducting  the  paper  in  the  interest  of  Federal  politics.  About 
the  time  of  our  declaration  of  war  against  Great  Britain  (a  n.  1S12),  party  spirit  ran 
very  high.  In  Baltimore  a  riot  occurred,  and  the  printing  office  of  a  Federal  news- 
paper was  destroyed  by  a  mob.  The  office  of  Mr.  Bronson  was  threatened  with  a 
similar  fate  if  he  did  not  cease  from  his  unfavorable  criticisms  upon  the  administration 
and  its  Democratic  leaders.  Mr.  Bronson  was  not  to  be  intimidated,  nor  to  cease  the 
expression  of  his  just  political  views  at  the  dictation  of  ruffians.  At  last,  however,  the 
threats  of  violence  against  his  office  took  actual  shape.  He  received  intelligence  from 
a  good  source  that  on  a  night  fixed  the  office  would  be  sacked.  On  that  same  night 
the  late  Nathaniel  Chapman,  M.  D.,  Charles  Chauncey,  the  Hon.  Bird  Wilson,  John 
B.  Wallace,  Horace  Binney,  Thomas  Biddle,  with  a  few  other  gentlemen  (all  intimate 
friends  of  Mr.  Bronson),  Federalists  all,  of  vigorous  strength,  came  to  the  office  of  the 
Gazette  with  muskets  well  loaded  with  ball,  bayonets  set,  and  gave  evidence  of  what 
any  band  of  ruffians  misjht  expect.     The  ringleaders  of  the  mob  came  and  looked  ; 


ArPEXDIX.  5  2  I 

man,  suggests  to  me  that  a  certain  plainness  of  manner  gives  if  rather 
to  the  eminent  Chief  Justice  of  Pennsylvania  just  named,  who  was 
warmly  attached  to  his  Associate,  and  was  one  of  the  executors,  I  think, 
of  his  last  will.  Come  from  what  source  it  may,  it  is  worthy  of  preser- 
vation in  the  biographies  of  the  eminent  Judges  of  Pennsylvania. 

OBITUARY. 

Hon.  Thomas  Smith  was  a  native  of  North  Britain,  from  whence  he  emigrated  in 
early  life  to  this  continent.  On  the  9th  of  February,  1769,  he  was  appointed  deputy 
surveyor  of  an  extensive  frontier  district,  and  established  his  residence  at  the  town  of 
Bedford.  In  the  execution  of  his  official  duties  he  displayed  integrity  and  abilities 
which  could  not  have  been  exceeded.  His  fidelity  in  this  important  and  interesting 
trust  was  so  strongly  marked  that  no  individual  has  been  able  to  complain  of  injury; 
and  exemption  from  law  suits,  and  certainty  of  titles  to  property,  have  been  almost  the 
invariable  result.  So  high  was  his  sense  of  honor,  so  inflexible  his  principles  of  jus- 
tice, that  he  would  never  suffer  even  suspicion  to  cast  a  shade  over  his  official  char- 
acter. His  private  interests  yielded  to  the  firmness  of  his  mind;  and  although  landed 
property  was  then  so  easily  to  be  acquired,  he  scrupulously  avoided  all  speculation, 
determined  that  the  desire  of  gain  should  neither  warp  his  rectitude  nor  give  birth  to 
jealousy  in  others. 

When  the  county  of  Bedford  was  erected,  he  received  commissions  from  the  then 
proprietors  to  execute  the  offices  of  Prothonotary,  Clerk  of  the  Sessions,  Orphans' 
Courts,  and  Recorder  of  Deeds  for  that  county;  and  such  was  the  uniform  tenor  of 
his  conduct  as  to  insure  the  respect,  esteem  and  attachment  of  all  who  had  any  trans- 
actions with  him. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  late  Revolution  he  zealously  espoused  the  cause  of  his 
adopted  country,  and  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  of  militia  performed  his  tour  of  duty 

looked  again  and  went  away.  An  hour  or  two  after  midnight  they  came  again  and 
found  the  guard  still  on  duty.  They  then  disappeared,  and  never  renewed  their  visits 
or  their  menaces.  While  proprietor  of  the  United  States  Gazette,  Mr.  Bronson  pub- 
lished several  works,  including  "  Roscoe's  Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medecis,"  and  "  Leo 
X.,"  by  the  same  author.  They  are  beautiful  specimens  of  typography.  "  Under  much 
coldness  of  manner,  amounting  almost  to  apathy,  Mr.  Bronson,"  said  the  Baltimore 
Chronicle,  when  noticing  his  death,  which  occurred  in  April,  1823,  "  possessed  a  warm 
and  benevolent  heart,  alive  to  all  tender  impulses,  blended  with  uncommon  boldness 
and  decision.  His  facility  in  writing  and  his  powers  of  abstraction  were  remarkable. 
With  his  office  filled  with  men  like  Joseph  Dennie,  Nathaniel  Chapman,  Thomas 
Biddle  and  others,  the  wits  and  conversation  men  of  Philadelphia  at  that  day — talk 
ing,  telling  stories  and  laughing,  he  would  hand  sheet  after  sheet  of  his  ready  compo- 
sition to  the  printer's  boy,  and  read  proofs  in  which  not  an  error  would  be  left." 

Mr.  Bronson  married  Mary,  daughter  of  the  venerable  Bishop  White.  Two  of  his 
seven  children  survive:  one  the  widow  of  the  late  accomplished  Prof.  Henry  Reed, 
who  was  lost  at  sea  on  the  ill-fated  "Arctic;"  the  other  the  Rev.  William  White  Bron- 
son, a  minister  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  distinguished  for  his  theological 
learning  and  valued  by  all  who  know  him  for  his  devotion  to  the  sick  and  poor  and 
suffering  of  every  class  who  need  his  service.  I  owe  to  him  my  many  thanks  for  ser- 
vices rendered  to  me  in  the  presentation  of  this  work. 


522  APPENDIX. 

in  her  service;  and  his  attachment  to  the  liberties  and  independence  of  these  United 
States  was  inviolable.  By  the  citizens  of  his  county  he  was  chosen  to  represent  them 
in  the  convention  which  formed  the  first  constitution  of  this  commonwealth,  but  it  is 
just  to  add,  that  instrument  did  not  meet  his  entire  approbation.  As  a  member  of  the 
Legislature,  frequently  elected,  his  talents  were  useful,  his  exertions  and  industry  un- 
remitted ;  and  when,  towards  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  he  was  appointed  to 
represent  this  State  in  Congress,  he  carried  with  him  into  that  body  the  same  invaluable 
qualities,  the  same  firm  and  inflexible  integrity. 

The  law  was  his  profession,  and  he  practised  with  industry  and  success,  seeking  to 
do  justice,  but  abhorring  iniquity  and  oppression  ;  never  greedy  of  gain,  he  was  mod- 
erate in  receiving  the  honorable  reward  of  his  professional  services.  lie  was  a  father 
to  those  who  confided  in  him,  however  poor  or  afflicted.  He  delighted  to  encourage 
merit  and  virtue  wherever  he  found  them;  but  he  exposed,  with  severity,  violence, 
fraud  and  iniquity,  whether  clothed  in  rags  or  shrouded  behind  the  mantle  of  wealth 
or  influence.  To  those  who  sought  it,  he  gave  honest  and  sound  advice  in  questions 
of  law,  according  to  the  best  of  his  skill  and  judgment.  He  discouraged  law  suits,  and 
scorned  to  foment  litigation  for  the  sake  of  gain.  He  may  have  frequently  erred — '• 
more  frequently  may  have  been  deceived  by  statements  imposed  upon  him  by  clients,- 
but  he  never,  knowingly,  recommended  the  prosecution  of  an  unjust  cause. 

When  the  judiciary  department,  under  the  present  constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  was 
organized,  he  was  appointed  President  of  the  district  composed  of  the  counties  of 
Cumberland,  Mifflin,  Huntingdon,  Bedford  and  Franklin,  in  which  office  he  continued 
until,  upon  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Bradford,  he  was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Pennsylvania.  The  arduous  duties  of  both  those  stations  he  performed  with 
skill  and  integrity.  He  spared  not  himself  in  sickness  or  in  health — he  shrunk  from 
no  labor  or  fatigue.  Although  his  constitution  was  wearing  away,  his  high  sense  of- 
duty  foreclosed  from  his  view  his  approaching  danger;  or,  though  he  beheld  it,  it  ap- 
peared to  him  trivial  in  comparison  with  what  he  considered  the  obligations  of  con- 
science. He  never  tasted  the  bread  of  idleness;  nor  would  he  have  touched  the 
emoluments  of  office  if  unable  to  perform  its  duties.  But  he  sunk  under  this  tco 
zealous  attention  to  rigid  duty,  at  an  age  not  greatly  advanced  ;  and  when,  by  a  little 
indulgence  and  self-denial  (most  surely  justifiable),  he  might  yet  have  been  spared  to 
his  afflicted  family. 

The  expressions  of  his  features  were  apparently  austere  :  his  outward  manners  were 
not  marked  w.th  grace  or  softness.  In  conversation,  his  sentiments  were  delivered 
with  blunt  sincerity,  and  were  sometimes  supposed,  by  those  who  knew  him,  not  to 
designate  the  character  of  harshness — but  his  heart  was  replete  with  the  finest  qualities 
which  could  adorn  it — humane,  benevolent  and  just. —  In  his  friendships  ardent  and 
sincere,  and  his  acts  of  friendship  executed  with  peculiar  delicacy  and  grace.  In  all 
his  dealings  he  was  scrupulously  exact,  and  there  exists  no  man  who  can  truly  say  he 
has  received  from  him  an  injury.  Those  who  knew  him  well  will  not  hesitate  to  ac- 
knowledge the  correctness  of  this  brief  eulogium  on  departed  worth. 

To  his  family  his  loss  is  irreparable ;  as  a  husband  and  a  father,  he  was  affectionate, 
mild,  indulgent.  The  happiness  of  his  family  was  the  great  object  of  his  life.  Do- 
mestic harmony  reigned  in  his  household.  His  mansion  was  the  abode  of  hospitality ; 
long,  very  long  will  his  loss  be  mourned  ;  the  memory  of  his  virtues  will  remain  as 
their  sweetest  consolation  ;  but  the  deep  felt  sorrows  of  his  afflicted  widow  and  chil- 
dren cannot  recall  the  husband,  father,  friend. 


ATTEND  IX.  523 

The  following  arc  the  inscriptions  from  the  tombs  in  Christ  church- 
yard. Philadelphia,  over  the  graves  of  Judge  Smith  and  his  family: 

Thomas  Smith, 
One  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania, 

Rests  beneath  this  marble. 

He  sustained  various  public  offices  with  ability  and  fidelity; 

Ills  integrity  was  inviolable. 

An  affectionate  husband  and  father.     In  his  friendships 

Benevolent  and  sincere. 

He  conscientiously  discharged  his  public  duties 

Until  the  last  day  of  his  life  with 

Unremitted  industry  and  zeal, 

And  died  March  31,  1 809, 

Aged  64  years. 

Also 

Letitia  Smith, 

Wife  of  the  above,  died  March  8,  181 1, 

Aged  52  years, 

Reposes  here.     Her  last  request  prohibits  more. 

Let  angels  speak  her  praises. 

Frances  SorniA  Smith, 

Daughter  of  Thomas  and  Letitia  Smith, 

Died  in  Savannah, 

Feb.  8,  1829, 

Aged  50, 
Reposes  here. 

Rebecca  Smith, 

Died  March  16th, 

1855- 

Letitia  Smith, 
Died  October  15,  1832. 

George  Washington  Smith, 
Died  April  22,  1876.     Aged  76. 

George  Washington  Smith,  whose  name  is  the  last  upon  the  list 
of  Judge  Smith's  children,  was  the  only  son  of  Judge  Smith.  The  fol- 
lowing notice  of  him  appeared  in  one  of  the  papers  of  the  day: 

DEATH  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  SMITH,  Esq. 

It  is  with  sincere  regret  that  we  announce  the  death  of  Mr.  George  Washington 
Smith,  who  expired  on  Saturday  last,  April  22,  1S76,  after  an  illness  of  some  length, 
at  his  residence,  No.  911  Clinton  street.  Mr.  Smith  never  having  been  in  public 
office,  nor   in  the   practice  of  a  profession  of  any  kind;    having   been  a  £ood  deal 


5^4  APPENDIX. 

reserved  in  general  intercourse,  and  having,  moreover,  been  a  frequent  traveller  and 
resident  abroad,  was  not  much  known  to  the  present  generation  of  Philadelphians. 
But  he  was  well  deserving  of  the  honor  and  respect  of  them  all.  His  father  was  the 
Hon.  Thomas  Smith,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  a 
native  of  Scotland  (born  near  Aberdeen),  and  half-brother  of  the  able  and  accom- 
plished Dr.  William  Smith,  Provost,  and  in  fact  the  founder,  of  the  old  College  of 
Philadelphia,  now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  both  being  sons  of  Thomas  Smith, 
a  man  of  property  in  Scotland. 

Thomas  Smith,  coming  to  this  country,  went  to  Carlisle,  Pa.,  where  he  practised  law 
successfully,  and  built  the  large  house  there  afterwards  occupied  by  Mr.  Hamilton. 
In  1790  he  came  to  this  city,  and  resided  on  the  south  side  of  Market  street,  between 
Tenth  and  Eleven  h.  He  was  appointed  in  1 794  a  Judge  of  our  Supreme  Court,  and 
died  in  1809,  leaving  the  reputation  of  an  able  and  most  upright  judge.  He  was  de- 
votedly attached  to  the  Federal  party — the  party  of  Washington  and  Hamilton,  of  Jay 
and  Marshall;  and  he  named  his  son  after  Washington,  with  whom  he  was  on  terms 
of  personal  friendship.  His  wife,  who,  if  a  picture  of  her  by  the  elder  Peale,  still 
preserved,  does  not  exaggerate  her  personal  attractions,  must  have  been  distinguished 
by  beauty,  was  of  the  family  name  of  Van  Dearen. 

Mr.  George  Washington  Smith  was  born,  as  appears  by  a  record  in  his  own  hand- 
writing in  our  Historical  Society,  on  the  4th  of  August,  1S00.  His  mother  died  while 
he  was  a  mere  infant,  and  his  father  in  1809,  before  he  had  completed  his  ninth  year. 
He  was  then  committed  to  the  care  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Tilghman  and  Edward 
Shippen  Burd,  as  his  guardians,  the  actual  guardianship  being  discharged  by  the 
former,  for  whom  Mr  Smith,  in  common  with  all  who  knew  him  intimately,  ever 
entertained  the  warmest  affection  and  respect.  He  received  his  primary  instructions 
in  classical  literature  from  the  well-known  James  Ross,  the  author  of  the  Grammar, 
and  in  1818  graduated  at  Princeton,  where  the  late  gifted  Joseph  Mcllvaine,  Esq., 
afterwards  Recorder  of  this  city  and  a  Representative  in  the  Legislature,  was  his 
classmate.  He  studied  law  in  the  office  of  the  late  Hon.  Horace  Binney,  and  was  in 
due  time  admitted  to  the  bar.  But  his  circumstances  were  such  as  raised  him  above 
the  necessity  of  practising  Ins  profession,  and  he  never  did  so.  He,  however,  engaged 
actively  in  matters  of  public  interest,  especially  those  relating  to  railroads,  which  then 
occupied  the  attention  both  of  practical  and  scientific  men,  Mr.  Moncure  Robinson, 
yet  surviving  in  honor  among  us,  being  in  those  days  at  the  head  of  them.  He  was 
also  greatly  interested  in  the  subject  of  prison  discipline. 

Two  papers  signed  with  his  initials,  "  G.  W.  S.,"  in  the  Views  of  Philadelphia, 
published  by  the  late  Mr.  Cephas  Childs,  give  evidence  of  his  ability  in  the  discussion 
of  what  is  now  known  as  Penology.  He  had  already  been  abroad,  and  paid  much 
attention  to  the  subject  of  railways  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  and  was  often 
before  committees  at  Harrisburg,  where  it  was  remarked  by  the  late  John  B.  Wallace — 
a  leading  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  much  interested  in  the  subject 
of  internal  improvements,  then  representing,  for  about  three  years  (fiom  1830  to  1S33), 
one  of  our  western  counties  in  the  Legislature — "  that  his  information  could  always  be 
depended  upon  for  its  accuracy."  During  some  years  Mr.  Smith  afterwards  resided 
in  Edinburgh  and  London,  where  he  was  engaged  in  vindicating  before  the  Superior 
Courts  of  England,  and  finally  before  the  House  of  Lords,  the  rights  of  a  sister,  who 
had  married  a  Scotch  gentleman  of  rank  and  fortune,  to  a  large  amount  of  pioperty 
which,  in  his  idea,  she  had,  in  disregard  of  her  rights,  surrendered  to  her  husband's 
family,  in  the  settlement  of  a  family  difficulty.     The  case  came  finally  before  the 


APPENDIX.  525 

British  House  of  Peers,  and  is  reported.  The  House  adjudged,  as  we  recall  the 
matter,  that  his  views  were  correct ;  though  a  majority  of  the  Peers,  acting  on  an  old 
rule,  made  in  the  interests  of  family  peace  and  harmony,  that  a  family  settlement  will 
not  be  disturbed,  even  though  a  party  have  surrendered  rights,  unless  the  case  be  very 
grievous,  refused  to  break  up  what  had  been  once  signed  anil  sealed. 

Of  late  years  Mr.  Smith  had  travelled  much,  not  only  in  Europe,  but  also  in  Africa 
and  Asia,  spending  much  time  in  the  regions  which  make  the  subject  of  Sallust's 
Jugurthine  war,  exploring  its  antiquities,  and  also  in  Palestine,  where  he  sought  to 
widen  and  to  deepen  the  foundations  of  a  religious  faith  that  from  early  life  lie  ever 
professed. 

Mr.  Smith,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  the  senior  Vice-President  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  Pennsylvania,  of  which,  with  Benjamin  Horner  Coatcs,  he  was  in  1822  a 
founder,  and  in  which  he  ever  took  a  deep  interest.  This  he  testified  quite  lately  by  a 
munificent  donation  of  money.  He  was  also  a  warden  and  a  vestryman  of  Christ 
Church,  in  whose  general  welfare,  and  especially  in  the  welfare  of  whose  Sunday 
schools — where  he  personally  labored  as  a  teacher — he  took  a  deep  interest.  During 
such  time  as  his  health  allowed  he  was  to  be  seen  regularly  in  the  ancient  pew  of  the 
family,  near  to  that  of  the  same  as  occupied  by  Washington  while  President  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  for  several  years,  and  up  to  the  very  close  of  his  life,  a  muni- 
ficent benefactor  of  the  Episcopal  Hospital,  devoting  his  large  income  to  this  and  to 
other  objects  of  charity,  religion,  or  literature,  in  the  most  unostentatious  manner,  and 
without  one  charge  upon  it  in  his  own  favor  for  luxury,  or  avarice,  or  personal  aggran- 
dizement of  any  kind.  In  his  politics,  Mr.  Smith  belonged  to  the  school  of  which  Lis 
father  was  a  well-known  advocate,  and  from  the  principles  of  that  school  he  never 
swerved.  He  was  distinguished  by  a  very  high  sense  of  political  and  personal  honor; 
and  though,  as  we  have  said,  not  widely  known  in  this  city  at  this  day,  his  death  will 
be  lamented  by  a  most  respected  class  of  persons  among  us. 

Resolutions  of  respect  to  his  memory  were  adopted  by  the  Vestry  of  Christ  Church 
this  iflorning.  Mr.  Smith  was  one  of  the  vestrymen  of  that  venerable  church  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  and  was  one  of  its  most  liberal  benefactors.  For  several  years  past 
he  had  annually  deposited  in  the  basin  at  the  offertory  at  Christ  Church,  on  Thanks- 
giving Day,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Episcopal  Hospital,  the  sum  of  $5,000.  He  also 
gave  largely  to  the  new  parish  building  fund,  and  constantly  gave  to  the  current  char- 
ities and  expenses  of  the  parish,  which  will  greatly  feel  his  loss.  The  funeral  of  Mr. 
Smith  will  take  place  from  Christ  Church  on  Wednesday  morning. 


No.  IX.— Page  411, 


Richard  Penn  Smith. 

Richard  Penn  Smith  was  born  at  his  parental  resideace,  the  vener- 
able edifice  still  standing  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Chestnut  and  Fifth 
streets,  Philadelphia.     He  received  his  early  education  at  Joseph  Neif 's 


526  APPENDIX. 

grammar  school,  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  with  whom  he  remained 
until  he  was  ten  years  of  age.  He  and  his  brother,  Samuel  Wemyss 
Smith,  were  for  some  years  under  the  care  of  a  private  tutor  by  the 
name  of  Sanderson,*  whom  their  father,  William  Moore  Smith,  Esq., 
had  found  reading  the  classics  in  the  original  upon  one  of  his  annual 
tours  up  the  Juniata.  He  took  a  fancy  to  him,  and  brought  him  to 
Philadelphia  as  the  tutor  and  companion  of  his  two  sons  above 
mentioned. 

When  Mr.  Neif  quit  his  school  these  boys  were  sent  to  one  at  Mount 
Airy,  kept  by  Mr.  John  T.  Carre.  After  some  years  spent  at  Mount 
Airy,  Mr.  Smith  went  to  Huntingdon,  Pa.,  and  was  placed  under  the 
care  of  the  Rev.  John  Johnson,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  who  had 
there  established  a  school,  and  was  for  many  years  well  known  as  a 
successful  teacher  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages.  In  1818  he  re- 
turned to  Philadelphia  and  entered  the  office  of  William  Rawle,  Esq., 
to  study  the  law.      His  fellow-students  in  the  office  were  David  Paul 

*John  Sanderson,  who  was  born  in  Carlisle  in  1783,  studied  the  classics  with  a 
clergyman  living  some  six  or  seven  miles  from  his  home,  and  in  1S06  came  to  Phila- 
delphia as  private  tutor  to  the  children  of  William  Moore  Smith.  In  1808  he  became 
a  teacher  in  Clermont  Seminary,  which  was  established  near  Frankford,  the  Principal 
of  which  was  John  T.  Carre.  Afterward  Sanderson  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Carre's, 
and  became  a  partner  in  the  management  of  the  school.  He  was  a  contributor  to  the 
Portfolio.  While  residing  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Smith  he  designed  "  The  Lives  of  the 
Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,"  which  was  the  first  attempt  to  combine 
their  biographies.  The  first  and  second  volumes  of  this  book  were  written  by  John 
Sanderson,  assisted  by  his  pupils.  The  life  of  Hopkinson  was  written  by  Richard 
Penn  Smith,  and  that  of  Chancellor  Wythe  by  William  Rudulph  Smith ;  but  the  work 
was  not  published  until  1820.  The  remaining  seven  volumes  are  attributed  to  Robeit 
Wain,  Jr.,  Henry  Dilworth  Gilpin,  and  others.  Mr.  Sanderson  published,  in  1826, 
"  Remarks  on  the  Plan  of  a  College  to  Exclude  the  Latin  and  Greek  Languages." 
His  views  were  adverse  to  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution.  After  the  death 
of  Stephen  Girard  he  advocated,  in  accordance  with  those  opinions,  the  introduction 
of  the  languages  in  the  course  of  studies  at  Girard  College.  These  arguments  were 
enforced  through  the  medium  of  the  press,  in  a  series  of  letters  signed  "  Roberjot." 
He  went  to  Paris  in  1835,  and  remained  there  one  year.  His  impressions  were  given 
to  the  world  in  "  Sketches  of  Paris,  in  Familiar  Letters  to  his  Friends,  by  an  American 
Gentleman.  Two  volumes.  1838;  ""  The  American  in  Paris.  Two  volumes.  1838." 
These  are  light,  agreeable,  and  abounding  in  wit  and  humor.  Theodore  Hook  sug- 
gested the  publication  of  this  book  in  England.  Jules  Janin  translated  it  into  French, 
and  it  was  published  in  1843.  He  commenced  a  work  to  be  entitled  "  The  American 
in  Paris,"  portions  of  which  were  published  in  the  Knickerbocker  Magazine.  Upon 
his  return  to  Philadelphia  he  opened  a  private  school,  and  when  the  High  School  was 
established  he  was  Professor  of  Greek  and  Latin.  The  writer  was  long  his  pupil.  He 
died  in  1844. 


ATTEND  IX.  527 

Brown,  Thomas  White*  (afterwards  of  Indiana,  Pa.),  and  Thomas 
S.  Smith.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  as  a  member  of  the  bar  in 
1820.  He  inherited  from  his  family  a  taste  for  letters,  and  was  early 
distinguished  for  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  acquirements.  His  first 
appearance  as  an  author  was  in  the  columns  of  the  Union,  where  he 
published  a  series  of  letters,  moral  and  literary,  under  the  title  of  the 
"  Plagiary."  About  the  close  of  the  year  1822  he  purchased  the  news- 
paper establishment,  the  Aurora  (which  long  before  this  date  had  lost 
its  violent  political  caste),  from  Mr.  Duane,  and  assumed  the  arduous 


*  Upon  the  death  of  Judge  Thomas  White,  which  occurred  in  1SS0,  the  following 
notice  appeared  in  a  Philadelphia  paper: 

A  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  through  your  journal,  desires  to  offer  a  memorial  tribute 
to  the  late  Judge  Thomas  White,  of  Indiana  county,  Pennsylvania,  who  departed  this 
life  at  his  residence  on  the  23d  inst.  The  deceased  was  a  worthy  descendant  of  a 
highly  aristocratic  family  in  Dublin,  and  born  about  1799,  in  Sussex,  England,  where 
his  father  was  barrack-master  in  the  British  army.  At  a  very  early  age  he  was  brought 
to  our  city,  where  he  was  raised  and  educated.  Under  the  friendly  auspices  of  the 
late  John  Vaughan,  Esq.,  he  was  entered  as  a  student  of  law  in  the  office  of  the 
venerable  William  Rawle,  where  he  graduated  with  his  fellow-student,  Richard  Penn 
Smith,  in  1S20,  with  flattering  encomiums,  and  was  admitted  to  practice.  Me  soon 
after  settled  in  Indiana  county,  this  State,  in  which  circuit  he  rapidly  rose  to  profes- 
sional honors  and  wealth.  Thus  distinguished,  he  sought  not  political  station,  because 
it  was  uncongenial  to  his  nature.  Imbued  with  literary  taste,  he  was  at  home  in  his 
well-selected  library,  and  while  he  cultivated  literature  he  also  devoted  his  energies  to 
agriculture  and  to  the  breeding  of  blooded  stock  animals — thus  blending  the  elegant 
pursuit  of  letters  and  judicial  learning  with  the  useful  science  of  modern  farming. 
Nothing  more  honorable  can  be  said  of  Thomas  White. 

To  delineate  a  character  so  amiable  and  pure  as  that  of  the  deceased,  wherein 
eminent  integrity  was  combined  with  all  the  domestic  virtues  of  the  husband,  father, 
brother  and  friend,  may  prove  a  task  more  difficult  than  the  writer  of  this  may  with 
propriety  undertake,  or  truth  unadorned  can  draw.  The  simplicity  of  his  manners  was 
proverbial.  He  was  guided  by  the  fixed  principles  of  religion  and  good  morals.  On 
the  election  of  Governor  Ritner,  in  1834,  he  received  the  appointment  of  President 
Judge  for  his  district. 

Governor  Curtin — in  view  of  his  conservative  but  loyal  predilections,  and  to  avert, 
if  possible,  an  ultimate  appeal  to  arms  to  sustain  the  Union  cause — appointed  Judge 
White  one  of  the  commissioners  to  the  Peace  Convention  that  assembled  at  Washing- 
ton before  the  rebellious  die  was  cast.     Alas  !   his  eloquent  appeals  were  fruitless. 

Domestic  affliction  during  the  latter  part  of  Judge  White's  life  did  its  work  to  en- 
feeble his  constitution.  The  sudden  loss  of  an  only  daughter  in  the  first  bloom  of 
womanhood — the  death  of  his  eldest  son,  Colonel  Richard  White — the  long  captivity 
of  his  son,  Brigadier-General  Harry  White — with  the  additional  loss  of  a  very  prom- 
ising favorite  grandson — so  sapped  his  health  and  mind  that  he  yielded  at  length  his 
harassed  spirit  to  that  Supernal  Power  that  gave  it  sixty-seven  years  ago.  His  body  is 
buried  in  peace  with  his  offspring — but  his  memory  will  live  in  the  hearts  of  his  widow 
and  his  family. 


528  APPENDIX. 

and  responsible  duties  of  an  editor.  At  this  work  he  continued  about 
five  years,  when,  finding  it  both  wearisome  and  unprofitable,  he  aban- 
doned it  and  resumed  his  profession.  A  good  classical  scholar,  and  a 
tolerable  linguist,  with  a  decided  bent  for  the  pursuits  of  literature,  his 
mind  was  well  stored  with  the  classics,  both  ancient  and  modern ;  and 
amid  the  vexations  and  drudgery  of  a  daily  newspaper,  he  wooed  the 
muses  with  considerable  success.  Perhaps  to  the  discipline  which 
editorship  necessarily  imposes,  and  the  promptness  which  it  requires, 
may  in  part  be  attributed  the  great  facility  he  possessed  in  composition. 
While  engaged  in  the  duties  of  a  profession,  generally  considered  un- 
congenial to  the  successful  prosecution  of  literary  adventure,  he  pro- 
duced a  number  and  variety  of  pieces,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  which 
showed  considerable  versatility  of  talent.  His  favorite  study  was  the 
drama,  and  with  this  department  of  literature  he  was  thoroughly 
familiar.  With  the  dramatists  of  all  nations  he  had  an  extensive 
acquaintance,  and  in  the  dramatic  history  of  England  and  France 
he  was  profoundly  versed.  Perhaps  there  are  few  who  studied  the  old 
English  masters  in  this  art  with  more  devoted  attention,  and  with  a 
keener  enjoyment  of  their  beauties.  But  it  is  not  alone  in  the  keen 
enjoyment  and  appreciation  of  others  that  he  deserves  attention.  He 
has  given  ample  evidence  that  he  possessed  no  ordinary  power  for 
original  effort  in  this  most  difficult  department  of  literature. 

We  do  not  know  how  many  plays  he  has  produced,  but  the  following, 
all  from  his  pen,  have  been  performed  at  different  periods,  and  in  most 
instances  with  complete  success:  "Quite  Correct;"  "Eighth  of  Jan- 
uary;" "The  Disowned;  or,  the  Prodigals;"  "The  Deformed;  or, 
Woman's  Trial;"  "A  Wife  at  a  Venture;"  "The  Sentinels;"  "Wil- 
liam Perm;"  "The  Triumph  of  Plattsburg;"  "  Caius  Marius;"  "The 
Water  Witch;"  "Is  She  a  Brigand?"  "My  Uncle's  Wedding;"  "The 
Daughter;"  "The  Actress  of  Padua;"  "The  Bravo." 

As  an  evidence  of  his  facility  in  composition,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  several  of  his  pieces  have  been  written  and  performed  at  a  week's 
notice.  The  entire  last  act  of  "William  Penn  "  was  written  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  day  previous  to  its  performance,  yet  this  hasty  produc- 
tion ran  ten  successive  nights,  drawing  full  houses,  and  has  since  been 
several  times  revived.  His  "Deformed"  and  "Disowned,"  two  dramas 
which  may  be  compared  favorably  with  any  similar  production  of  this 
country,  were  both  performed  with  success  in  London. 

In  1831  Mr.  Smith  published  a  work  in  two  volumes,  called  the 
"Forsaken,"  the  scene  of  which  is  laid  in  Philadelphia  and  the  adjoin- 
ing country  during  our  Revolutionary  struggle.  Many  years  ago  Ameri- 
can novels — with  the  exception  of  Cooper's — were  not  received  with 


APPENDIX.  529 

the  same  favor  as  now;  but  a  large  edition  of  the  "Forsaken"  was 
even  then  disposed  of,  and  it  obtained  from  all  quarters  strong 
commendation. 

In  1S36  Mr.  Smith  wrote  for  Carey  &  Hart,  of  Philadelphia,  a  "Life 
of  David  Crockett,"  and  one  of  "  Martin  Van  Buren,"  and  also  pub- 
lished two  volumes,  entitled  "The  Actress  of  Padua,  and  other  Tales," 
which  have  been  eminently  successful.  As  a  writer  of  short  tales,  he 
was  natural  and  unaffected  in  manner,  correct  in  description,  concise 
in  expression,  and  happy  in  the  selection  of  incidents.  He  possessed, 
moreover,  a  quiet  humor,  and  an  occasional  sarcasm,  which  make  his 
productions  both  pleasant  and  pungent. 

Mr.  Smith  wrote  much  for  the  periodical  literature  of  the  day,  both 
political  and  literary,  and  his  poetical  pieces,  if  collected,  would  make 
a  large  volume;  but  these  appear  to  have  been  scattered  abroad,  without 
any  purpose  of  reclamation.  His  name  is  attached  to  a  limited  num- 
ber, which  are  distinguished  by  a  healthy  tone  of  thought,  neatness  of 
expression,  and  harmony  of  versification;  but  as,  generally,  they  were 
produced  for  some  particular  occasion,  they  have — most  of  them,  at 
least — passed  into  oblivion  with  the  occasion  that  called  them  into 
existence. 

Mr.  R.  P.  Smith  married  Mrs.  Elinor  Matilda  Lincoln,  on  the  5th 
of  May,  1823,  the  ceremony  being  performed  in  Christ  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Abercrombie.  Five  children  were  the  off- 
spring of  this  union,  of  whom  I  am  the  only  survivor.  My  mother  died 
September  16,  1833,  and  we  were  alone — he  made  me  his  companion. 
Well  do  I  remember  how  proud  I  was  of  him ;  he  took  me  with  him. 
wherever  he  went,  and  his  associates  and  companions  (child  as  I  was) 
became  mine.  James  N.  Barker,  Robert  M.  Bird,  Joseph  C.  Neal, 
Edwin  Forrest,  James  Goodman,  Edgar  A.  Poe,  Louis  A.  Godey,  Wil- 
liam E.  Burton,  Robert  T.  Conrad,  Joseph  R.  Chandler  and  Morton 
McMichael  were  the  literary  magnates  of  Philadelphia,  and  of  all  that 
intellectual  coterie  my  father's  star  was  the  brightest,  his  wit  the  gayest, 
and  his  sarcasm  the  most  cutting;  as  a  writer  he  was  admired;  as  a 
dramatist,  at  that  day  the  most  successful  in  the  country,  and  with 
some  fame  as  a  poet,  he  was  beloved  as  a  companion  and  a  gentleman. 

In  1836  my  father  again  married,  retired  from  active  life  and  went 
to  reside  upon  the  family-seat  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  near  Phila- 
delphia.    Here  he  died,  August  12,  1854. 

His  social  qualities  made  him  a  great  favorite  among  his  acquaint- 
ances, and  the  remembrance  of  his  brilliant  conversation  will  long  pre- 
serve his  name  from  oblivion.  His  papers  I  carefully  collected,  which, 
with  a  full  set  of  his  printed  works,  have  been  deposited  in  the  archives 
34 


53°  APPENDIX. 

of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  with  the  fond  hope  that  he  may 
some  day  have  a  great-grandson  to  edit  them  and  give  them  to  the  public. 
James  Reese,  Esq.  ("Colley  Cibber"),  in  his  "  Life  of  Edwin  For- 
rest," the  tragedian,  speaking  of  my  father,  says: 

There  are  numerous  anecdotes  related  of  Richard  Penn  Smith,  all  of  which  display 
the  most  ready  wit  and  sarcastic  humor.  Indeed,  he  was  so  celebrated  for  repartee 
and  off-hand  sayings  that  he  was  actually  dreaded  in  company,  and  very  few  had  the 
courage  to  measure  lances  with  him  when  wit  was  the  prize.     A  few  we  give  here: 

Richard  Penn  Smith  avowedly  wrote  for  money,  and  he  required  something  more 
substantial  than  the  blandishments  of  the  Muses  to  tempt  him  to  put  his  pen  to  paper. 
If  Green  Room  anecdotes  are  to  be  depended  upon,  he  was  blessed  with  a  thicker  skin 
than  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  genus  irritabile  vatum.  It  is  told  of  him  that  upon 
one  occasion  he  happened  to  enter  the  theatre  during  the  run  of  one  of  his  pieces,  just 
as  the  curtain  was  falling,  and  met  with  an  old  school-fellow,  who  had  that  day  ar- 
rived in  Philadelphia,  after  an  absence  of  several  years.  The  first  salutation  was 
scarcely  over  when  the  curtain  fell,  and  the  author's  friend  innocently  remarked : 
"  Well,  this  is  really  the  most  insufferable  trash  that  I  have  witnessed  for  some  time." 
"  True,"  replied  Smith,  "  but  as  they  give  me  a  benefit  to-morrow  night  as  the  author, 
I  hope  to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  here  again." 

At  another  time  a.  friend  met  him  in  the  lobby,  as  the  green  curtain  fell  on  one  of 
his  progeny,  and,  unconscious  of  its  paternity,  asked  the  author,  with  a  sneer,  what  the 
piece  was  all  about.  "  Really,"  was  the  grave  answer,  "  it  is  now  some  years  since  I 
wrote  that  piece,  and  though  I  paid  the  utmost  attention  to  the  performance,  I  confess 
I  am  as  much  in  the  dark  as  you  are." 

When  Mr.  Smith  was  a  young  man,  he  was  introduced  by  his  father  to  a  well- 
known  Philadelphian  by  the  name  of  Wharton,  who,  from  the  fact  of  having  a  very 
large  nose  with  a  wart  on  it,  was  called  "  Big-nosed  Wharton,"  to  distinguish  him 
from  another  gentleman  of  the  same  name.  When  out  of  hearing,  the  father  said  to 
the  son:  "They  call  that  gentleman  Big-nosed  Wharton."  The  son  quickly  replied: 
"  They  have  made  a  mistake ;  they  should  call  him  Wart-on  Big  nose." 

Upon  going  one  day  into  a  hotel  in  which  some  of  his  friends  were  holding  an  argu- 
ment about  the  city  of  Dumfries,  Scotland,  they  made  an  appeal  to  him  to  decide  the 
question.  "  I  know  nothing  of  the  Dumfries  of  Scotland,  but  I  know  a  Dumb-freas 
of  Germantown."  Mr.  Freas,  of  the  Germantown  Telegraph ,  an  excellent  gentleman, 
who  was  deaf  and  talked  but  little,  was  sitting  within  hearing  at  the  time. 

He  was  at  a  dinner  given  to  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  by  the  Bar  of  Phila- 
delphia, on  the  change  of  the  constitution,  in  1837.  Mr.  Smith  had  his  health  drank, 
and  when  he  arose  to  reply,  a  lawyer  by  the  name  of  Lee,  of  a  character  almost  in- 
famous, and  every  way  low,  pulled  him  by  the  coat  and  urged  him  to  toast  him.  As 
Mr.  Smith  closed  his  remarks  he  said :  "Gentlemen,  you  have  toasted  the  Binneys, 
the  Chaunceys,  the  Rawles  and  Sergeants  of  the  bar;  allow  me  to  offer  the  Lees  of  the 
Philadelphia  Bar."  Mr.  Lee  did  not  see  the  joke,  and  replied,  to  the  amusement 
of  all  present. 

Mr.  Smith  always  raised  his  own  pigs.  On  one  occasion  he  had  them  killed  on  the 
eighth  of  January  (the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  where  Sir  Edward 
Packenham  was  killed).  The  next  day  he  met  a  friend,  who  remarked:  "Smith, 
yesterday  was  a  fine  day  for  killing  pigs."  "Yes,"  replied  Smith,  "but  a  bad  day 
for  Packing-ham." 


APPENDIX.  53  * 

The  reader  will  excuse  me  for  the  insertion  of  some  extracts  from  my 
father's  letters  to  me,  but  they  tend  to  show  his  character  as  a  parent. 

To  Horace  W.  Smith,  Nazareth  Hall,  Pennsylvania: 

Philadelphia,  October  16,  1837. 
My  Dear  Son: 

You  must  not  imagine  that  you  are  forgotten  from  my  not  having  written  to  you ; 
there  is  never  a  day  passes  but  we  talk  about  you.  Your  mother*  is  getting  the 
clothes  made,  that  you  require,  and  in  a  few  days  they  shall  be  put  in  a  box  and  for- 
warded to  you.  We  are  at  a  loss  to  find  a  lid  to  any  of  the  boxes  about  the  house,  as 
you  cut  them  all  up  to  make  ships  and  toys,  so  that  you  have  occasioned  unnecessary 
trouble  for  want  of  thought.  Before  you  throw  away  or  destroy  anything,  you  should 
always  reflect  whether  it  will  not  be  of  use  to  you  at  some  future  day.  A  little  reflec- 
tion of  this  kind  will  save  you  a  great  deal  of  trouble  throughout  life. 

We  are  all  well,  and  little  brother  Richardf  has  grown  to  be  a  fine  big  boy.  He 
crows  and  laughs,  and  to-day  we  bought  him  a  basket  chair  to  teach  him  to  sit  alone. 
Grandmother  is  well,  and  takes  great  interest  in  your  letters.  She  keeps  them,  and 
leads  them  over  and  over  again.  You  must  write  to  her  without  delay,  and  in  your 
letter  say  something  to  aunt  Lydia,  who  loves  you  very  much,  as  we  all  do,  and  feel 
a  deep  interest  in  hearing  a  favorable  report  of  your  conduct  and  attention  to  your 
studies. 

Mr.  Godey  was  a  good  deal  amused  at  receiving  a  letter  from  you,  and  told  me  that 
he  would  write  to  you.  You  should  have  borne  in  mind  to  have  paid  the  postage  on 
that  letter,  as  you  wrote  to  him  on  your  own  business,  alone ;  but  as  it  was  to  Mr. 
Godey,  it  did  not  matter.  However,  make  it  a  rule  always  to  pay  the  postage  when 
vou  write  to  gentlemen  on  business  in  which  you  are  solely  interested.  Your  letter 
was  very  well  put  together,  and  afforded  us  all  much  amusement. 

Mr.  Forrest  has  returned  from  England  ;  I  went  to  see  him,  and  he  enquired  after 
you.  .  .  .  Mother  laughs  a  good  deal  at  your  sending  for  a  while  satin  vest,  for  she  was 
not  aware  that  you  owned  one.  You  shall  have  a  new  black  velvet  one,  out  of  my 
old  one. 

I  have  but  to  repeat  to  you,  to  attend  to  your  studies,  and  by  correct  and  amiable 
deportment  endeavor  to  secure  the  esteem  of  your  preceptors  and  schoolmates.  If  you 
are  unfortunately  at  any  time  placed  under  restraint,  for  neglect  of  your  lessons  or  any 
other  cause,  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  a  temporary  punishment  for  your  own  good,  and 
instead  of  being  annoyed  at  those  who  punish  you,  blame  yourself,  and  endeavor  to 
avoid  a  repetition  of  the  cause.  Do  not  view  your  teachers  as  taskmasters,  but  be 
grateful  to  them  for  the  information  they  endeavor  to  impart,  and  set  about  all  that  is 
required  of  you  with  a  cheerful  spirit. 

Do  not  neglect  to  write  to  grandmother,  and  address  your  letter  to  me.  Write 
soon.     Bless  you,  my  dear  boy;   I  wish  to  see  you  very  much. 

Your  affectionate  father, 

Richard  Penn  Smith. 

Give  my  respects  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Yan  Vleck. 

-  My  stepmother — my  father's  second  wife. 

•(-  This  was  my  half  brother,  Richard  Penn  Smith,  Jr.  He  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  suppression  of  the  late  rebellion  as  Colonel  of  the  California  regiment. 


532  APPENDIX. 

Again  : 

Philadelphia,  January  24,  1838. 
Dear  Son : 

You  have  neglected  to  write  to  me  since  your  return,  and  I  find  that  I  must  write  to 
you,  or  remain  ignorant  of  your  health  and  condition.  We  expected  to  hear  all  about 
your  journey  up,  your  safe  arrival,  and  happy  reunion  with  your  teachers  and  school- 
fellows ;  but  it  appears  that  you  have  not  a  single  word  to  say,  though  you  spoke,  when 
here,  in  such  high  terms  of  the  kindness  you  had  received,  and  your  perfect  satisfac- 
tion. You  must  repair  this  neglect,  and  write  without  delay,  for  we  are  all  anxious  to 
hear  from  you,  and  grandmother  is  becoming  quite  impatient. 

I  have  nothing  new  to  communicate.  Your  uncle  William  is  still  at  Washington, 
and  has  not  been  here  since  he  first  went.  There  has  been  a  remarkable  exhibition  at 
the  Walnut  Street  Theatre — a  man  seven  feet  eight  inches  high,  from  Kentucky,  and 
but  twenty-one  years  old.  Think  what  a  creature !  he  is  half  a  yard  taller  than  Mr. 
Traquair,  and  you  have  never  yet  seen  a  man  who  could  not  walk  under  his  arm-pits. 
There  was  also  a  nice  little  man  with  him,  scarcely  a  yard  high,  who  is  nearly  twice 
his  age — a  mere  Liliputian.  I  went  behind  the  scenes  and  had  a  conversation  with 
them  both,  to  satisfy  myself  that  there  was  no  deception.  The  big  man  was  feeble, 
possessed  but  little  muscular  power,  and  his  health  was  delicate.  He  had  outgrown 
his  strength.  He  told  me  that  he  grew  thirteen  inches  in  one  year,  during  a  great 
portion  of  which  time  he  was  confined  to  his  bed  through  rheumatism  and  weakness. 
The  little  fellow  was  as  brisk  as  a  bee,  and  though  twice  as  old,  bids  fair  to  outlive 
his  friend,  "  the  man  mountain."  My  dear  son,  nature,  in  her  works,  goes  immeas- 
urably beyond  the  extent  of  human  comprehension;  objects  are  daily  presented  to  our 
eyes,  of  whose  magnificence  our  feeble  intellects  could  form  no  conception,  and  we 
pass  them  by  without  even  noticing  their  beauty ;  but  when,  as  in  the  present  instance, 
she  deviates  from  some  well-established  rule,  our  dull  senses  are  shocked  at  the  enor- 
mity, we  recoil  from  her  works,  and  cry  "  Unnatural !  "  Still  it  is  her  work  ;  fcr  what 
purpose  thus  formed — inscrutable ;  but  though  disfigured,  not  the  less  entitled  to 
respect. 

That  which  is  coarse  and  grotesque  seizes  hold  of  the  imagination  of  all;  it  is  the 
lot  of  a  chosen  few  to  have  a  keen  perception,  and  relish  for  the  beautiful.  I  would 
have  you  rather  look  for  beauties  than  defects.  Cultivate  a  taste  of  this  kind,  and  it 
will  be  an  inexhaustible  source  of  enjoyment  to  you.  The  world  is  full  of  beauty. 
The  sky,  glittering  with  myriads  of  unknown  worlds,  the  green  fields,  the  flowing 
rivers — I  would  have  you  love  them  all.  They  are  mighty  volumes,  which  God  has 
spread  before  all  his  creatures ;  we  see  them  daily,  and  it  is  wicked  to  blindly  turn 
away,  and  refuse  to  read  his  works  as  illustrated  there.  Study  and  love  these,  my 
son,  and  your  mind  will  be  as  young  and  joyous  as  at  present,  even  when  your  head 
is  gray. 

We  are  all  well,  and  send  you  a  great  deal  of  love.  Your  mother  has  been  urging 
me  to  write  to  you  for  several  days,  but  I  have  been  much  engaged  in  my  office,  and 
constantly  writing.  Say  something  to  please  grandmother,  and  write  to  her  soon. 
Your  uncle  Britton  died  on  Sunday,  and  was  buried  yesterday  in  the  city.  I  went  to 
the  funeral.  He  had  been  sick  for  some  time.  Little  brother  Dick  grows  like  a  man, 
and  I  hope  will  soon  write  you  a  letter.  I  am  going  to  Trenton,  New  Jersey, 
to-morrow. 

Give  my  respects  to  Mr.  Van  Vleck,  and  tell  him  that  whenever  he  thinks  proper  to 
draw  upon  me  for  the  amount  of  your  bill  for  tuition,  etc.,  he  can  do  so,  and  it  shall 


APPENDIX.  533 

be  paid.  Attend  to  your  studies  with  diligence,  and,  above  all,  endeavor  to  do 
nothing — not  even  the  slightest  thing — that  will  tend  to  humble  you  ill  your  own 
esteem.  Respect  yourself,  and  others  will  respect  you.  I  scratch  this  hastily,  with  a 
very  incorrigible  pen,  and  fear  you  will  not  be  able  to  read  it.  God  bless  you,  my 
dear  boy.  Your  affectionate  father, 

Richard  Penn  Smith. 

Under  date 

Philadelphia,  April  25,  1838. 
MY  Dear  Son  : 

Shortly  after  the  receipt  of  your  letter  I  procured  a  copy  of  the  "Actress  of  Padua" 
for  you,  and  left  it  at  the  stage  office;  about  two  weeks  after  I  called  to  ascertain 
whether  you  had  received  it,  and  found  that  it  had  not  been  forwarded,  but  the  clerk 
promised  to  send  it  the  next  day,  so  I  presume  you  have  received  it  before  this  time. 
You  shall  have  your  music  book,  but  I  fear  it  will  be  attended  with  similar  difficulties 
to  transmit  it. 

The  picture  came  safe,  and  your  mother  has  had  it  handsomely  framed  and  hung  in 
the  parlor.  The  frame  cost  three  dollars,  so  your  present  has  been  somewhat  expen- 
sive to  me;  but  it  was  an  evidence  of  your  good  feeling,  and  it  afforded  us  all  much 
satisfaction.     It  looks  quite  flashy,  I  assure  you. 

Thomas  wrote  to  you  from  Harrisburg,  and  doubtless  mentioned  Anne's  marriage  to 
Mr.  Hobart,  and  the  melancholy  death  of  poor  David.*  Within  a  few  hours  of  his 
dissolution  he  was  talking  cheerfully  of  his  speedy  recovery.  We  are  truly  in  the 
midst  of  death.  My  dear  boy,  you  are  but  twelve  years  old ;  and  yet  in  the  brief  scope 
of  your  memory  how  many  of  your  friends  and  acquaintance,  both  younger  and  older 
than  yourself,  have  departed  ! — within  little  more  than  one  year,  five  or  six  of  your 
own  immediate  relatives.  Think  at  times  seriously  upon  this,  but  not  with  a  gloomy 
spirit.  It  is  as  much  a  condition  upon  which  we  receive  life,  as  the  necessity  of 
breathing,  and  remember  that  death  is  divested  of  all  terrors  to  the  enlightened 
and  pure  in  mind.  It  is  the  act  of  a  wise  man  to  live  in  such  a  way  that  the  close 
of  life  will  become  more  cheerful,  and  hold  out  far  brighter  promises  than  even  the 
sunny  days  of  his  boyhood.     In  this  manner  I  trust  you  will  live 

Your  uncle  William  went  to  Sunbury  a  few  days  ago.  His  book  on  "  Wisconsin  " 
has  been  published.  Aunt  Lydia  is  living  with  grandmother  at  the  Falls.  Why  don't 
you  say  a  kind  word  to  them  in  your  letters?  They  are  always  thinking  and  talking 
about  you,  and  as  soon  as  they  learnt  that  you  required  new  clothing,  they  both  came 
to  me  privately,  and  wished  to  pay  for  a  suit.  Our  sources  of  gratification  in  this 
world,  my  dear  boy,  are  manifold,  and  not  a  few  so  newhat  mysterious.  It  is  beyond 
your  philosophy  to  understand  what  pleasure  they  could  derive  in  spending  their 
money  for  you,  when  I  cheerfully  furnish  you  with  everything  necessary;  but  still  it  is 
so,  and  when  you  have  made  some  progress  in  metaphysics,  you  may  amuse  yourself 
in  tracing  the  motive  to  its  pure  fountain.  You  want  your  clothes  by  the  time  of  the 
examination,  but  you  have  not  stated  when  it  takes  place,  and  really  I  do  not  know. 
They  shall  be  sent  soon. 

Little  Dick  grows  finely.  He  has  been  very  sick  with  a  cold  for  three  weeks,  but 
is  recovering.  He  endeavors  to  talk,  can  shake  day-day,  and  pushes  a  chair  from  one 
end  of  the  office  to  the  other.  He  looks  very  much  like  what  you  were,  and  has  a 
rousing  big  head.     Mother  scolded  at  your  saying  nothing  to  her  in  your  last  letter; 

*  David  Conden,  a  bound  boy,  raised  in  the  family  of  my  grandmother. 


534  APPENDIX. 

she  wished  me  to  send  you  a  dollar  when  she  received  the  picture,  but  I  thought  I 
could  spend  it  better,  so  declined.     She  sends  you  a  great  deal  of  love. 

Attend  to  your  studies  with  diligence,  for  in  four  or  rive  years  your  school-education 
must  terminate.  I  intend  you  for  a  man  of  business,  for  such  are  the  most  indepen- 
dent and  happy.  To  become  such  will  require  the  attention  of  several  years,  so  you 
will  perceive  the  importance  of  your  time.  I  hope  to  see  you  industrious  and  provi- 
dent. These  are  virtues  enjoined  upon  us  in  the  Sacred  Writings,  and  their  effects 
are  forcibly  illustrated  in  the  following  passages  :  "  The  ants  are  a  people  not  strong, 
yet  they  prepare  their  meat  in  the  summer;  "  "  The  spider  taketh  hold  with  his  hands, 
and  is  in  kings'  palaces." 

I  enclose  you  a  dollar,  which  your  mother  insists  must  go  this  time.  Our  best  re- 
spects to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Van  Vleck.  We  all  send  you  our  best  wishes  and  love,  and 
hope  you'll  write  soon.  Affectionately  your  father, 

Richard  Penn  Smith. 


No.  X. — Page  445. 


Printed  Works  of  William  Smith,  D.  D. 

From  the  year  1750  to  the  year  1803,  so  far  as  known,  or  supposed  to  exist,  by  me. — 

H.  W.  Smith. 

A  Memorial  for  the  Established  or  Parochial  Schoolmasters  in  Scotland, 
addressed  to  the  great  men  in  Parliament,  etc.  By  William  Smith, 
as  Commissioner  of  said  Schoolmasters.       London,  Jan.  31,  1750. 

An  Essay  on  the  Liberty  of  the  Press.  London,  July,  1750. 

A  Scheme  for  Augmenting  the  Salaries  of  Established  or  Parochial 
Schoolmasters  in  Scotland,  dated  at  Abernethy,  November  5,  1749. 

Scott 's  Magazine,  October,  1750. 

Essay  on  Education.        Published  in  a  New  York  paper,  Nov.  7,  1752. 

New  Year's  Ode.  January  1,  1753. 

A  General  Idea  of  the  College  of  Mirania.  With  some  Account  of  its 
Rise,  etc.   8vo.  J.  Parker  &  W.  Weyman,  New  York,  1753. 

A  Compendium  of  Logic,  including  Metaphysics,  and  one  of  Ethics, 
by  Samuel  Johnson,  D.  D.  ;  with  a  Philosophical  Meditation  and 
Religious  Address  to  the  Supreme  Being,  for  the  use  of  young  stu- 
dents in  Philosophy,  by  William  Smith,  A.  M. 
Published  in  Phila.,  in  1753,  by  B.  Franklin,  and  in  London,  1754. 


APPENDIX.  535 

Letter  to  Archbishop  Herring,  giving  an  Account  of  the  Death  of  Sir 
Dan  vers  Osborne,  Governor  of  New  York. 

London,  Dec.  15,  1753. 

Historical  Account  of  the  Charity  for  the  Instruction  of  the  Poor 
Germans  in  America.  Franklin,  Pliila.,  1753. 

Several  Essays  on  Education  were  published  during  1754  in  the 
Antigua  Gazette. 

Sermon  preached  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  on  the  Death  of  a 
Beloved  Pupil,  September  1,  1754. 

Published  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  1754. 

A  Sermon  Preached  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  before  the  Ancient 
and  Honorable  Society  of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons.   8vo. 

B.  Franklin  &  D.  Hall,  Philadelphia,  1755. 

A  Brief  State  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania.    8vo. 

R.  Griffiths,  London,  1755. 

A  Brief  View  of  the  Conduct  of  Pennsylvania  for  1755  :  being  a  sequel 
to  the  last.   Svo.  R.  Griffiths,  London,  1756. 

The  American  Magazine,  for  1757  and  1758.  From  October,  1757, 
to  October,  1758,  with  a  supplement ;   13  numbers  in  all.    Svo. 

Wm.  Bradford,  Philadelphia. 

A  Charge,  delivered  May  17,  1757,  at  the  First  Anniversary  Com- 
mencement in  the  College  and  Academy  of  Philadelphia,  to  the 
Young  Gentlemen  who  took  their  Degrees  on  that  occasion,  by 
W.  Smith;  to  which  is  added  an  Oration  in  Latin,  by  Paul  Jack- 
son.   i2mo. 

Printed  by  B.  Franklin  6°  D.  Hall,  Philadelphia,  1757. 

A  True  and  Impartial  State  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania,  being  an 
Answer  to  the  pamphlets  entitled  "A  Brief  State,"  and  "A  Brief 
View."    8\ro.  IV.  Dunlap,  Philadelphia,  1759. 

Recommendation  of  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  to  the  University  of  Oxford. 
4to,  large  paper.  (50  copies.  Privately  printed  at  Philadelphia, 
1865.)  London,  1759. 

Discourses  on  Public  Occasions  during  the  War  in  America.   8vo. 

London,  1759. 

A  Discourse  Concerning  the  Conversion  of  the  Heathen  Americans. 
Svo.  W.  Dunlap,  Philadelphia,  1 760. 


536  APPENDIX. 

An  Exercise,  consisting  of  a  Dialogue  and  Ode,  sacred  to  the  Memory 
of  his  late  Gracious  Majesty  George  II.  Performed  at  the  Public 
Commencement  in  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  May  23,  1761. 
The  ode  set  to  music  and  sung  with  the  organ. 

Philadelphia  :  Printed  and  sold  by  Andrew  Steuart,  in   2d  street, 
and  by  Andrew  Gaine,  in  New  York. 

Discourses  on  Public  Occasions  during  the  War  in  America.  Second 
edition.   8vo.  London,  1762. 

The  Last  Summons,  a  Sermon  Preached  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 
on  January  10,  1762,  at  the  Funeral  of  Robert  Jenny,  Rector  of 
the  said  Church.    i2mo.  A.  Steuart,  Philadelphia,  1762. 

Exercise  on  the  Accession  of  George  III.,  at  the  College,  18th  of  May, 
1762.    4to.  Philadelphia,  1762. 

Speech  by  John  Dickenson,  Esq.,  in  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  May 
24,  1764;  with  Preface  by  William  Smith.  Phila.,  1764. 

Answer  to  Mr.  Franklin's  Remarks  on  a  late  Protest.   8vo. 

Printed  by  William  Bradford,  Philadelphia,  1 764. 

Juvenile  Poems  on  Various  Subjects,  with  the  Parthia,  a  Tragedy,  with 
some  account  of  the  Author  and  his  Writings.  4to.  By  Thomas 
Godfrey,  Jr.  (This  was  edited  by  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  and  an 
account  of  the  author  inserted.)  Henry  Miller,  Phila.,  1765. 

Dialogue,  etc.,  for  the  Commencement  in  the  College,  30th  of  May, 
1765.    8vo.  Philadelphia,  1765. 

An  Historical  Account  of  the  Expedition  Against  the  Ohio  Indians,  in 
the  year  1764,  under  the  Command  of  Henry  Bouquet.  Illustrated 
with  a  map  and  copper  plates. 

William  Bradford,  Philadelphia,  1765  ;  at  the  London  Coffee- House. 
(This  work  was  reprinted  in  London  in  1766,  in  Paris  in  1769,  and 
in  Cincinnati 'in  1868.) 

Four  Dissertations  on  the  Reciprocal  Advantages  of  a  Perpetual  Union 
between  Great  Britain  and  her  American  Colonies;  written  for 
Mr.  Sargent's  Prize  Medal,  to  which  is  prefixed  an  Eulogium 
spoken  on  the  Delivery  of  the  Medal.   8vo. 

William  c^  Thomas  Bradford,  Philadelphia,  1766. 

An  Exercise  containing  a  Dialogue  and  Two  Odes,  performed  at  the 
Public  Commencement  in  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  May  20, 
1766. 

Philadelphia :  Printed  by  W.  Dunlap,  in  Market  street,  1766. 


APPENDIX.  537 

An  Exercise  containing  a  Dialogue  and  Two  Odes,  performed  at  the 
Public  Commencement  in  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  November 
17,  1767. 

Philadelphia:    William  God Jard,  in  Market  street,  1767. 

Some  Account  of  the  Charitable  Association  lately  erected  ;  also  a  Ser- 
mon Preached  in  Christ  Church,  October  10,  1769.    4to. 

D.  Hall  &  IV.  Sellers,  Philadelphia,  1769. 

Cato's  Letters,  containing  some  Remarks  on  Paine's  Common  Sense,  etc. 

Published  by  John  Holt,  New  York,  1769. 

Some  Account  of  the  Charitable  Corporation,  and  also  a  Sermon 
Preached  in  Christ  Church.   8vo. 

D.  Hall  &  W.  Sellers,  Philadelphia,  1770. 

An  Exercise  containing  a  Dialogue  and  Two  Odes,  performed  at  the 
Commencement  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  June  5,  1770. 

Printed  by  J.   Cruikshank  cV  J.  Collins. 

Works  of  Nathaniel  Evans.  John  Dunlap,  Philadelphia,  1772. 

An  Oration,  delivered  January  22,  1773,  before  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society.   4to.  J.  Dunlap,  Philadelphia,  1773. 

An  Examination  of  the  Connecticut  Claim  to  Lands  in  Pennsylvania. 
With  an  Appendix,  containing  Extracts  and  Copies  from  Original 
Papers.   8vo.  Joseph  Cruikshank,  Philadelphia,  1774. 

A  Sermon  on  the  Present  Situation  of  American  Affairs,  preached  in 
Christ  Church,  1775.   8vo.  J.  Humphreys,  Jr.,  Philadelphia,  1775. 

A  Fast  Sermon  and  Prayer,  at  All  Saints  Church,  Philadelphia,  July 
20,  1775,  on  Occasion  of  the  first  Fast  appointed  by  the  American 
Congress.  Philadelphia,  1775. 

An  Oration  in  Memory  of  General  Montgomery,  and  of  the  Officers 
and  Soldiers  who  fell  with  him,  December  31,  1775,  before 
Quebec.   8vo.  J.  Dunlap,  Philadelphia,  1776. 

A  Sermon  Preached  in  Christ  Church  (for  the  benefit  of  the  poor),  by 
appointment  of  and  before  the  General  Communication  of  Masons, 
on  December  28,  1778.      Dedicated  to  George  Washington.    8vo. 

J.  Dunlap,  Philadelphia,  1779. 

Ahiman  Rezon,  abridged  and  digested  as  a  help  to  all  that  are  or  would 
be  Free  and  Accepted  Masons,  to  which  is  added  a  Sermon  (see 
last  pamphlet).  8vo.  Hall  &>  Sellers,  Philadelphia,  1783. 


538  APPENDIX. 

An  Account  of  Washington  College,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  pub- 
lished by  order  of  the  Visitors  and  Governors  of  the  said  College, 
for  the  Information  of  its  Friends  and  Benefactors.      51  pp.,  8vo. 

Philadelphia,  1784. 

An  Address  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Case  of 
the  Violated  Charter  of  the  College,  etc.,  of  Philadelphia.    i2mo. 

R.  Aitken  6°  Son,  Philadelphia,  1788. 

Two  Sermons  delivered  in  Christ  Church.   8vo. 

Dobson  6°  Lang,  Philadelphia,  1789. 

Eulogium  on  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Be?ijamin  Franklin  Bache,  Philadelphia,  1792. 

An  Historical  Account  of  the  Rise,  Progress  and  Present  State  of  the 
Canal  Navigation  in  Pennsylvania.     Map.   4to. 

Zachariah  Poulson,  Jr.,  Philadelphia,  1795. 

An  Account  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Illinois  and  Ouabache  Land 
Companies,  in  Pursuance  of  their  Purchases  made  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Natives,  July  5,  1773,  and  October  18,  1775.   8vo. 

William  Young,  Philadelphia,  1796. 

Remarks  on  the  second  Publication  of  B.  Harvey  Latrobe,  Esq. 

Z.  Poulson,  Philadelphia,  1799. 

The  Works  of  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  late  Provost  of  the  College  and 
Academy  of  Philadelphia.      2  vols.,  8vo.     Portrait. 

Hugh  Maxwell,  Philadelphia,  1802-3. 


No.  XI. — Page  447. 


Account  of  Dr.  Smith's  Papers. 

My  respected  friend,  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Montgomery,  great-grandson 
of  Bishop  White,  is  good  enough  to  give  me,  at  my  request,  the  subse- 
quent history  of  the  papers  of  Dr.  Smith  taken  by  Dr.  White  upon  the 

death  of  the  former. 

"  2320  Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia, 

"14  November,  1879. 
"My  Dear  Sir: 

"  The  MSS.  of  Bishop  White,  composed  of  his  correspondence  and 
other  writings,  which  accumulated  in  his  hands  during  the  organization 


APPENDIX.  539 

of  the  American  church,  were  lent  by  him  to  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  F.  L. 
Hawks,  as  an  aid  to  that  eminent  historian  in  compiling  his  records  of 
our  ecclesiastical  history.  With  him  they  remained  for  many  years,  as 
his  work  was  a  vast  one  and  demanded  time ;  and  Bishop  White,  it 
appears,  never  sought  to  recover  them,  nor  did  his  executors,  after  his 
death,  give  the  matter  prompt  attention.  Both  of  the  executors  pre- 
deceased Dr.  Hawks  by  some  years,  and  upon  the  death  of  the  latter 
the  Bishop's  descendants  took  steps  to  obtain  the  MSS.  from  Dr. 
Hawks's  estate.  When  it  was  ascertained  that  since  Dr.  Hawks's  death 
they  had  practically  been  in  the  custody  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  Bishop 
White's  descendants,  with  entire  unanimity,  decided  that  it  was  emi- 
nently proper  they  should  remain  in  such  custody;  and  under  date  of 
15  October,  1868,  presented  the  following  Memorial  to  the  Bishops: 

"  To  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishops  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Convention  assembled  : 

"The  Memorial  of  the  undersigned,  descendants  of  the  late  Right  Rev.  William 
White,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  re- 
spectfully show : 

"  That  the  said  Bishop  White,  some  few  years  prior  to  his  death,  loaned  to  the  Rev. 
Francis  L.  Hawks,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  for  the  purpose  of  historical  examination/the  major 
portion  of  his  collection  of  MSS.,  consisting  of  correspondence  between  himself  and 
many  bishops,  clergymen  and  laymen,  in  this  and  other  countries ;  as  also  other 
papers,  bearing  principally  on  the  establishment  of  the  church  in  America,  and  being 
of  very  great  value.  That  these  papers  were  in  Dr.  Hawks's  custody  at  the  death  of 
Bishop  White,  but  were  not  claimed  by  the  latter's  executors,  because  of  their  under- 
standing that  Dr.  Hawks  had  not  concluded  his  investigations,  and  so  remained  with 
Dr.  Hawks  until  his  decease,  September  26,  1866,  no  claim  having  as  yet  been  laid 
to  them  for  the  reason  above  stated.  That  on  the  27th  of  October,  1866,  subsequently 
to  Dr.  Hawks's  death,  a  descendant  of  Bishop  White,  and  agent  of  your  memorialists, 
called  upon  one  of  the  executors  of  his  estate,  and  there  did  make  claim,  to  which 
answer  by  letter  was  returned  under  date  of  November  16,  1866,  by  the  said  executor, 
to  the  effect  that  he  would  be  heard  from  in  due  time  upon  the  subject;  that,  notwith- 
standing this  reply,  nothing  further  has  been  heard,  nor  was  anything  known  as  regards 
these  papers  by  your  memorialists,  until  a  few  months  since,  when  information  was 
received  that  they  had  all  been  placed  by  Dr.  Hawks's  executors  in  the  custody  of 
your  venerable  body. 

"Your  memorialists  further  show  that  they  represent  all  the  descendants  of  the  said 
Bishop  White,  with  the  exception  of  two,  who  are  now  residents  of  distant  parts  of  the 
United  States,  and  with  whom  your  memorialists  have  put  themselves  in  communica- 
tion ;  that  they  have  every  reason  to  believe,  and  do  believe,  that  the  assent  and 
ratification  of  the  same  will  in  due  course  be  had  to  this  action  of  your  memo- 
rialists, although  it  has  been  impossible  up  to  this  date  to  obtain  it  for  presentation 
herewith. 

"  Your  memorialists  therefore  pray  that  your  Reverend  Body  take  into  consideration 
their  claim  to  the  said  papers,  and  acknowledge  the  same,  if  in  your  wisdom  it  seems 
just;  and  that  they  be  permitted  hereby  to  put  upon  record  their  wish  to  make  a  gift 


54°  APPENDIX. 

of  the  same  to  the  House  of  Bishops  and  their  successors,  when  such  gift  can  be  per- 
fected by  ail  the  parties  interested  therein.* 

"This  Memorial  was,  on  motion  of  the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
had  presented  it,  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Memorials  and  Peti- 
tions, namely,  the  Bishops  of  Delaware,  Virginia  and  Western  New 
York,  who  submitted  the  following  report : 

"  The  Standing  Committee  on  Memorials  and  Petitions,  to  whom  was  referred  the 
Memorial  of  the  descendants  of  the  late  Right  Rev.  William  White,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Presiding  Bishop,  setting  forth  that  certain  papers 
of  much  historical  interest  had  been  loaned  by  their  venerable  ancestor  to  the  late  Rev. 
Francis  L.  Hawks,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  and  upon  the  decease  of  Dr.  Hawks  had  been 
placed  in  the  custody  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  asking  of  this  House  a  recognition  of 
their  right  of  property,  and  permission  to  put  upon  record  their  wish  to  make  a  gift 
of  the  same  to  the  House  of  Bishops,  when  such  gift  can  be  perfected  by  all  the  parties 
interested  therein,  report  the  following  resolutions  : 

"Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Bishops  hereby  acknowledge  that  the  right  of  property 
in  the  papers  loaned  by  the  late  Bishop  White,  of  Pennsylvania,  to  the  Rev.  Francis  L. 
Hawks,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  remains  in  the  heirs  and  descendants  of  Bishop  White. 

"Resolved,  That  this  House  highly  appreciate  the  generous  proposal  of  the  memo- 
rialists to  present  to  the  Bishops  the  above-mentioned  papers,  and  return  their  cordial 
thanks  for  the  promise  of  a  donation  of  so  much  historic  value. 

"  Which  resolutions  were  on  motion  adopted. f 

"At  the  meeting  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  in  the  General  Convention 
of  1 87 1,  'the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  presented  a  communication  from 
the  descendants  of  the  late  Bishop  White,  together  with  a  deed  convey- 
ing certain  historical  documents  to  the  sole  custody  of  the  House,' 
when,  on  his  motion,  it  was 

"Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Bishops  gratefully  acknowledge  the  reception  of  the 
deed  of  gift  by  the  descendants  of  Bishop  White,  conveying  to  this  House  the  papers 
mentioned  therein,  and  return  to  Thomas  H.  Montgomery,  Esq.,  and  through  him  to 
all  represented  by  that  gift,  the  thanks  of  this  House  for  the  important  trust  now  con. 
fided  to  their  sole  custody.J 

"In  the  interesting  report  of  the  Special  Committee  to  the  House, 
in  1868,  in  the  papers  left  by  Dr.  Hawks  reference  is  first  made  to  the 
transcripts  made  in  England,  at  the  expense  of  the  General  Convention, 
from  original  documents,  '  in  all  eighteen  folio  volumes  of  historical 
matter,  the  value  of  which  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated.'  The  report 
proceeds  to  say  that,  '  besides  these  important  folios,  this  collection 
comprises  the  correspondence  of  Bishop  White,  Bishop  Hobart  and 
Bishop  Ravenscroft,  and  the  Rev.  Drs.  William  Smith  and  Samuel 
Peters.  || 

*  Journal  of  the  General  Convention  of  1 868,  pp.  216,  431. 
|  Ibid.,  1868,  p.  227.  \  Ibid.,  1871,  p.  274.  ||  Ibid.,  1868,  p.  228. 


APPENDIX.  541 

"  Trusting  that  the  above  narration  may  afford  you  the  desired  state^ 
ment  as  to  the  destination  which  the  valuable  MSS.  of  your  distin- 
guished ancestor  finally  took, 

"  I  remain,  truly  yours, 

"  Thos.  H.  Montgomery. 
"  Horace  Wemyss  Smith,  Esq.,  Falls  of  Schuylkill." 


No.  XII. 


Genealogical  Account  of  the  Descendants  of  William  Moore,  Esq., 
of  Moore  Hall,  Penna.,  whose  Daughter  Dr.  Smith  Married. 

William  Moore  (known  as  of  "Moore  Hall")  married  William- 
ina,  daughter  of  David,  fourth  Earl  of  Wemyss,*  1722. 

1.  Rebecca,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  February  21,  1724-5;   died  Janu- 
ary 9,  1728. 

2.  William,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  October  5,  1726. 

3.  Williamina,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  February  21,  1727-8. 

4.  John,  born  at  Philadelphia,  October  1,  1729;  died  February  2, 

I73°- 

5.  John  (second),  born  at  Moore  Hall,  January  21,  1730. 

6.  Rebecca,  born  at  Philadelphia,  February  21,  1732-3;   died  Oc- 
tober 20,  1793. 

7.  Thomas  William,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  June  12,  1735. 

8.  Margaret,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  March  26,  1738;  died  July  17, 

1745- 

9.  Mary,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  July  8,  1741. 

10.  Anne,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  October  4,  1742;   died   December 
20,  1810. 

11.  Frances,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  March  10,  1744-5. 

12.  James  Wemyss,  born  at  Moore  Hall,  July  22,  1747. 

III.   Williamina  Moore  married  Phineas  Bond,  M.  D.,  August 
4,  1748. 

13.  Phineas,  Jr.,  born  July  15,  1749;  died  1816. 

14.  Williamina,  born  February  26,  1753. 

15.  Ann,  born  August  5,  1756;  died  December  13,  1796. 

*  See  pages  498-9. 


542  APPENDIX. 

1 6.  Rebecca. 

17.  Elizabeth,  died  January  26,  1820. 

Dr.  Phineas  Bond  was  born  in  Virginia,  in  the  year  171 7;  died  in 
Philadelphia,  June  11,  1773. 

IV.  John  Moore  married  Miss  Ann  O'Niel,  December  3,  1758. 

18.  Williamina,  born  November  17,  1759. 

VI.  Rebecca  Moore  married  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  July  3, 
I758- 

19.  William  Moore,  born  June  1,  1759  >   died  March  12,  1821. 

20.  Thomas  Duncan,*  born  November  18,  1760;  died  July  9,  1789. 

21.  Williamina  Elizabeth,  born  July  4,  1762;  died  December  19, 
1790. 

22.  Charles, f  born  March  4,  1765  ;  died  April  18,  1836. 

23.  Phineas,  born  January  31,  1767  ;  died  August  16,  1770. 

24.  Richard, J;  born  January  25,  1769;  died  October  1,  1823. 

25.  Rebecca,  born  April  11,  1772;  died  March  9,  1837. 

26.  Eliza,  born  May  16,  1776;  died  September  25,  1778. 

VII.  Thomas  William  MOOre  married  Mrs.  Anne,  widow  of 
Dr.  Richard  Ascough,  a  surgeon  in  the  British  army,  July  6,  1761. 

27.  Janet  Forman. 

28.  Thomas  William. 

Thomas  William  Moore,  Sr.,  was  a  merchant  in  New  York  city,  of 
the  firm  of  Moore  &  Lynsen.  He  was  admitted  to  membership  in  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  October  4,  1765,  and  in  1769  was  made  free- 
man of  the  city  under  the  appellation  of  gentleman.  He  died  in 
England. 

X.  Ann  Moore  married  Dr.  Charles  Ridgely,  June  2,  1774. 

29.  Williamina  Moore,  born  February  20,  1775;  died  April  21, 
1808. 

30.  Mary,  born  August  9,  1777  ;  died  March  9,  1855. 

31.  Henry  Moore,  born  August  6,  1779;  died  August  6,  1847. 

32.  George  Wemyss,  born  April  4,  1781 ;  died  at  sea,  1800. 
^t,.  Ann,  born  February  12,  1784;  died  August  29,  1805. 

Dr.  Charles  Greenbury  Ridgtly  was  born  January  26,  1738;  was 
educated  at  the  College  of  Philadelphia.  He  generally  wrote  his  name 
Charles  Ridgely,  dropping  the  Greenbury.  He  died  November  25, 
1785;  he  was  buried  at  Dover;  Dr.  Smith  officiated.  For  an  account 
of  him  see  this  volume,  page  252. 

*  See  Appendix  No.  XIII.  f  Ibid.,  No.  XIV.  %  Ibid.,  No.  XV. 


A F TEND IX.  543 

XIV.  Williamina  Bond  married  General  John  Cadwalader, 
January  30,  1779. 

34.  Thomas,  born  October  29,  1779;  died  October  31,  1841. 

35.  Frances,  born  June  25,  1781  ;  died  March  25,  1843. 

36.  John,  born  May  1,  1784;  died  July  10,  1785. 

General  John  Cadwalader was  a  son  of  Dr.  Thomas  Cadwalader,  born 
in  Philadelphia,  January  10,  1742;  died  at  Shrewsbury,  Md.,  February 
10,  1786,  aged  44  years. 

XVII.  Elizabeth  Bond  married  John  Travis,  of  Philadelphia, 
1792. 

37.  Ann  Bond,  born  August  8,  1793. 

38.  John  Phillips,  born  April  18,  1795;  died  1817. 

39.  Frances  Bond,  born  September  4,  1797. 

40.  Elizabeth,  born  1799. 

41.  Williamina  Wemyss,  born  18023  died  1876. 

XIX.  William.  Moore  Smith  married  Ann  Rudulph,  June  3, 
1786. 

42.  William  Rudulph,*  born  August  31,  1787;  died  August  22,  1868. 

43.  Samuel  Wemyss,  born  September  1,  1796;  died  January  6,  1819. 

44.  Richard  Penn,|  born  March  13,  1799;  died  August  12,  1854. 

XXI.  Williamina  Elizabeth  Smith  married  Charles  Golds- 
borough,  Esq.,  of  Horn's   Point,   Dorchester  county,   Md.,  May  15, 

1783- 

45.  Robert,  born  February  18,  1784;  died  June  22,  181 7. 

46.  William  Smith,  born  September  26,  1786;  died  1813. 

47.  Sarah  Yeabery,  born  August  8,  1787  ;  died  1862. 

48.  Williamina,  born  December  1,  1790;  died  1792. 

Air.  Charles  Goldsborough  was  the  son  of  Robert  Goldsborough,  bar- 
rister-at-law.   He  was  born  November  21,  1761,  and  died  June  12,  1801. 

XXII.  Charles  Smith  %  married  Mary  Yeates,  of  Lancaster, 
Pa.,  March  3,  1791. 

49.  Jasper,  born  March  15,  1792;  died  November  19,  1823. 

50.  William  Wemyss,  born  March  20,  1795  ;  died  March  27,  1825. 

51.  Williamina  Elizabeth,  born  October  3,  1797;  died  January  9, 
1848. 

52.  Sarah  Yeates,  born  March  24,  1802  ;  died  March  4,  1847. 

53.  Charles  Edward,  born  March  6,  1804;  died  January  2,  1829. 

*See  Appendix  No.  XVI.  f  See  Appendix  No.  IX.,  page  525.  \  See  Appendix  No.  XIV. 


544  APPENDIX. 

54.  Mary  Margaret,  born  October  16,  1806;  died  January  n,  1870. 

55.  Theodore  Horatio,  born  January  20,  1809;   died  March  27, 

1837- 

56.  Catherine  Yeates,  born  December  31,  1810;  died  July  3,  181 7. 

Mrs.  Mary  Smith  was  the  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Jasper  Yeates,  Asso- 
ciate Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania.  She  was  born 
March  13,  1770,  and  died  August  27,  1836. 

XXIV.  Richard  Smith*  married  Letitia  Nixon  Coakley,  of 
Lancaster.     No  issue. 

Mrs.  Letitia  Smith  was  the  daughter  of  John  Coakley  and  Letitia 
Nixon,  his  wife. 

XXV.  Rebecca  Smith  married  Samuel  Blodget,  Jr.,  Esq.,  May 
10,  1792. 

57.  Thomas  Smith,  born  August  25,  1793;  died  1836. 

58.  Julia  Ann  Allen,  born  November  13,  1795 ;  died  July  26,  1877. 

59.  Elinor  Matilda,  born  1797;  died  September  16,  1833. 

60.  John  Adams,  born  December  28,  1799;  died  March  5,  1870. 
For  an  account  of  Samuel  Blodget,  Jr.,  see  Appendix  No.  VII 

XXVII.  Janet  Forman  Moore  married  Lieutenant  Jacob 
Jones, f  of  the  navy. 

61.  Williamina. 

62.  Richard  Ayscough. 

XXVIII.  Thomas  William  Moore,  Jr.,  married  (first)  Mary, 

*  See  Appendix  No.  XV. 

■f  Commodore  Jacob  Jones  was  born  about  the  year  1770,  near  the  village  of  Smyrna, 
Kent  county,  Delaware.  His  father  was  an  independent  and  respectable  farmer.  The 
subject  of  our  memoir  was  at  first  intended  for  the  practice  of  medicine;  accordingly 
he  graduated,  but  did  not  continue  long  in  practice.  The  clerkship  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  of  Delaware  was  conferred  upon  him ;  in  this  office  he  continued 
for  some  time,  but  as  it  did  not  agree  with  his  health,  he  resolved  to  enter  as  midship- 
man in  the  service  of  his  country.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with  Tripoli  he 
was  stationed  on  the  ill-fated  "  Philadelphia;  "  he  was  there  taken  prisoner,  and  kept 
in  confinement  about  a  year  and  a  half.  He  was  now  promoted  to  a  lieutenancy;  he 
was  shortly  after  appointed  to  command  the  "Argus,"  and  gave  such  entire  satisfaction 
that  he  was  appointed  a  captain.  In  1811  he  was  transferred  to  the  command  of  the 
"Wasp,"  and  distinguished  himself  in  several  engagements  with  the  enemy's  vessels; 
he  was  afterwards  captured  and  placed  on  his  parole.  In  1 82 1  he  took  command  of  a 
squadron,  in  which  he  continued  for  three  years.  On  his  return  he  was  ordered  to 
the  command  of  the  Baltimore  station,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  transferred 
as  Post-Captain  of  the  Harbor  of  New  York.     Commodore  Jones  died  August  3,  1850,, 


APPENDIX.  545 

daughter  of  George  Gibbs,  who  died  in  1813;  married  (second)  Miss 
Bibby,  of  New  York. 

63.  Thomas  Bibby. 

XXX.  Mary  Ridgely  married  William  Winider  Morris,  M.  D., 
November  5,  1807. 

64.  William  Ridgely,  born  January  23,  181 1. 

65.  Emily  Ridgely,  born  1814. 

66.  Annie  M.,  born  181 9. 

XXXI.  Henry  Moore  Ridgely  married    Sarah,  daughter  of 
John  Banning,  Esq.,  of  Dover,  Del.,  November  21,  1S03. 

67.  Ann,  born  February  21,  1815. 

68.  Henry,  born  April   15,  1817. 

69.  Nicholas,  born  December  18,  1820;  died  December  1,  1849. 

70.  Eugene,  born  May  4,  1822. 

71.  Willi amina  Elizabeth. 

72.  Edward,  born  January  30,  1831. 

XXXIV.  Thomas  Cadwalader  married  Mary  Biddle,  1804. 

73.  John,  born  April  1,  1805  ;  died  January  26,  1879. 

74.  George,  born  May  16,  1S06,  died  February  30,  1879. 

75.  Thomas,  born  August  27,  1808;  died  January  19,  1844 

76.  Henry,  born  January  21,  1817;  died  July  2,  1844. 

77.  William,  born  October  2,  1820;  died  October  15,  1875. 

Mrs.  Mary  Cadwalader  was  the  daughter  of  Clement  Biddle,  Esq., 
of  Philadelphia.     She  was  born  January  6,  1781. 

XXXV.  Prances  Cadwalader  married  David  Montagu  Ers- 
kine,  of  Restormel  Castle,  county  Cornwall,  England,  1800. 

78.  Thomas  Americus. 

79.  John  Cadwalader. 

80.  Edward  Morris. 

81.  James  Stuart. 

82.  Frances. 

83.  Mary. 

84.  Sevilla,  died  March  12,  1835. 

85.  Stewarta. 

86.  Elizabeth. 

87.  Harriet. 

88.  Jane  Plumer. 

Lady  Frances  Erskine  died  March  25,  1843.      His  lordship  married. 
35 


546  APPENDIX. 

(second)  Ann   Bond,  daughter  of  John  Travis,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia, 
she  being  first  cousin  to  his  first  wife.     No  issue. 

XXXV.   Frances  Travis  married  J.  G.  Williamson.     No  issue. 

XL.  Elizabeth  Travis  married  William  Greene  Cochran,  1825. 

89.  Fanny  Travis,  born  March  8,  1825. 

90.  Elizabeth. 

91.  Travis,  born  March  7,  1830. 

92.  William,  born  February  3,  1832. 

93.  Annie  Bond,  born  October  10,  1834. 

94.  Henry,  born  January  9,  1836. 

95.  George,  born  April  14,  1838. 

XLII.  William    Rudulph   Smith   married    Eliza   Anthony, 
March  16,  1809. 

96.  William  Anthony,  born  November  13,  1809. 

97.  Thomas  Duncan,  born  February  7,  181 2. 

98.  Henrietta  Williamina,  born  May  2,  1814;  died  November  27, 

1873- 

99.  Anne  Amelia,  born  March  13,  1816. 

100.  Algernon  Sidney,  born  February  3,  1818;   died  October  10, 
1818. 

101.  Eliza,  born  October  27,  1820;   died  June  5,  1825. 

Mrs.  Eliza  Smith  was  the  daughter  of  Joseph  Anthony,  of  Philadel- 
phia, born  August  12,  1789;  died  January  10,  1821. 

XLII.   William  Rudulph  Smith  married  Mary  H.  Vandyke 
(second  wife),  October  25,  1823. 

102.  Rudulph  Vandyke,  born  September  5,   1825;  died  June  17, 

1857. 

103.  Richard  Moore,  born  October  1,  1828. 

104.  Penelope  Campbell,  born  August  2,  1830;  died  December  17, 
1852. 

105.  John  Montgomery,  born  October  26,  1834. 

106.  Letitia  Nixon,  born  January  5,  1833;  died  February  24,  1833. 

107.  Maria  Letitia,  born  September  10,  1836;  died  December  26, 
185-2. 

.108.  Samuel  Wemyss,  born  April  10,  1840. 

109.  Mary  Eliza,  born  January  24,  1845. 

no.  Henry  Hobart,  born  May  21,  1848;  died  April  18,  1850. 
-Mary  Hamilton  Vandyke,  fourth  daughter  of  Dr.  Thomas  James  Van- 


APPENDIX.  547 

dyke,  United  States  army,  and  his  wife,  Penelope  Smith   Campbell, 
born  at  Maysville,  Tenn.,  April  17,  1S05. 

XI. IV.  Richard  Penn  Smith  married  Mrs.  Elinor  Matilda 
Lincoln,  May  5,  1823. 

in.  Elinor  Matilda,  born  September  13,  1S24;  died  November 
19,  1825. 

112.  Horace  Wemyss,  born  August  13,  1825. 

113.  Duncan  Moore,  born  September  15,  1827;  died  March  6, 
1S29. 

114.  Helen  West,  born  May  9,  1831  ;  died  July  20,  1832. 

115.  Emma  Matilda,  born  October  26,  1832;  died  1834. 
Mrs.  Elinor  M.  Smith,  see  No.  59. 

XLIV.  Richard  Penn  Smith  married  (second)  Isabella  Strat- 
ton  Knisell,  1836. 

116.  Richard  Penn  (second),  born  May  9,  1837. 

117.  Isabella  Penn,  born  January  22,  1839. 

11S.  William  Moore,  ) 

^  ,  >  twins,  born  January  4,  1841. 

119.  Eliza  Arnold,     J 

120.  Maria  Lewis,  born  January  23,  1844;  died  April  1,  1869. 
Airs.  Isabella  Stratton  Smith  was  the  daughter  of   Christopher  and 

Elizabeth  Knisell,  born  November  27,  1812;  died  May  17,  1880. 

XLV.  Robert  Goldsborough  married  Mary  Nixon,  1810. 

121.  Nicholas  Locherman,  born  1810;  died  December  5,  1850. 

122.  Louisa  Nixon,  born  May  21,  1813. 

123.  Sarah  Yeabury,  born  November  5,  1815. 

124.  Williamina  Elizabeth  Ennals,  born  1818. 

Mrs.  Mary  Goldsborough  was  the  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Charles 
Nixon,  of  Dover,  Del.,  and  the  niece  of  Nicholas  Vandyke.  After  the 
death  of  Robert  Goldsborough  (June  22,  181 7)  she  married  Mr.  Gard- 
ner Baily,  November  1,  1825. 

XLVll.  Sarah  Yeabury  Goldsborough  married  Charles 

Goldsborough,  Esq.,  of  Shoal  Creek,  Md.,  1803. 

125.  Charles  Yeabury,  born  1805  ;  died  1807. 

126.  John  McDowell,  born  1806;  died  1807. 

127.  William  Tilghman,  born  1808;  died  1876. 
128.-  George  Washington,  born  1810;  died  1812. 

129.  Charles  McDowell,  born  181 1  ;  died  1815. 

130.  Robert  F.,  born  1814;  died  1819. 

131.  Williamina  E.  E.,  born  1813;  died  1865. 


54§  APPENDIX. 

132.  Mary  Tilghman,  born  1816;  died  1849. 

133.  Caroline  F.,  born  1820;  died  1854. 

134.  William  Henry,  born  1818. 

135.  Robert  F.,  born  1822;  died  1824. 

136.  Sarah  Lloyd,  born  1824;  died  1825. 

137.  Richard  Tilghman,  born  1826. 

138.  Henrietta  Maria,  born  1828;  died  1845. 

139.  Charles  F.,  born  1830. 

Charles  Goldsborough,  Esq.,  born  1765.  He  was  a  State  Senator  of 
Maryland,  member  of  Congress  from  1804  to  1817,  and  Governor  of 
Maryland  in  1819;  died  1834. 

LI.  Williamina  Elizabeth  Smith  married  Thomas  b.  Mc- 

Elwee,  Esq.,  February  6,  1822. 

140.  Mary  Rebecca,  born  May  14,  1823. 

141.  Charles  John,  born  April  4,  1825  ;  died  January  7,  1850. 

142.  Sarah  Yeates,  born  April  23,  1827. 

143.  Anna,  born  June  12,  1829;  died  May  15,  1842. 

144.  Catherine  Yeates,  born  October  16,  1831. 

Thomas  B.  McElwee  was  a  member  of  the  bar,  born  October  31. 
1792;  died  August  ?■;,  1843. 

LII.  Sarah  Yeates  Smith  married  Leonard  Kimball,  Esq., 
January  29,  1823. 

145.  Charles  Edmund,  born  December  22,  1823. 

146.  Theodore  Horatio,  born  June   17,  1825;  died  February  22, 

1874- 

147.  William  Douglas,  born  February  14,  1827;  died  1838. 
Leonard  Kimball,  Esq.,  son  of  Edmund  and  Rebecca  Kimball,  born 

December  11,  1785,  at  Bradford,  Essex  county,  Mass.  ;  was  an  attorney; 
died  at  Philadelphia,  January  28,  1847. 

LIII.  Charles  Edward  Smith  married  Miss  Owen,  of 
Baltimore. 

148.  Mary  Yeates,  born  1829;  died  in  Baltimore,  October  28, 
1854. 

LIV.  Mary  Margaret  Smith  married  George  Brinton,  Esq., 
of  Philadelphia,  July  27,  1831. 

149.  John  Hill,  born  May  21,  1832. 

150.  Mary  Yeates,  born  November  22,  1834. 

151.  Sarah  Frederica,  born  January  23,  1839. 

152.  Margaret  Yeates,  born  August  3,  1843. 


APPENDIX.  549 

George  Brinton  was  the  son  of  John  Hill  and  Sarah  Brinton,  born  at 
Philadelphia,  March  7,  1804;  died  June  30,  1858. 

LVII.  Thomas  Smith  Blodget  married  Miss  Anna  Marshall. 

153.  An  infant. 

LVIII.  Julia  Ann  Allen  Blodget  married  John  Britton,  Jr., 
of  Philadelphia. 

154.  Ellen  Matilda. 

155.  John  Blodget. 

156.  Maria  Louisa,  died  1831. 

157.  Harriet  Emily. 

158.  George  Edward,  born  September  10,  1825;  died  July  3,  1861. 

159.  Isabella  Smith,  died  1854. 

160.  Mary  Yeates,  died  1853. 

161.  William  Henry,  died  July  10,  1851. 
John  Britton,  Jr.,  died  January  20,  1838. 

LIX.  Elinor  Matilda  Blodget  married  Abel  Lincoln,  Esq., 
of  Massachusetts,  1810. 

162.  William  Smith,  born  November  10,  181 1. 

163.  Thomas  Blodget,  born  181 3. 

164.  Julia  Maria,  born  February  7,  1816. 

165.  John  George,  born  1818;  died  1842. 

Abel  Lincoln,  Esq.,  died  of  yellow  fever  in  New  Orleans,  June  5, 
1822.  Mrs.  Lincoln  married  Richard  Penn  Smith,  as  will  be  seen 
under  No.  44. 

LX.  John  Adams  Blodget  married  Nancy  Fletcher,  of  Bed- 
ford, Pa.,  1825. 

166.  Rebecca  Smith,  born  March  27,  1826. 

167.  Eliza  Duncan,  born  1828. 

Mr.  John  Blodget  was  an  attorney  at  law,  and  practised  his  profession 
in  Bedford,  Pa.;  he  died  in  Philadelphia,  July  5,  1872. 

lxii.  Richard  Ayscough  Jones. 

168.  John  M. 

LXIV.  William  Ridgely  Morris  married  Catharine  Harris, 
May  15,  1845. 

169.  Mary  M.,  born  June  20,  1847. 

170.  Walter,  born  February  18,  1849. 

171.  Julia,  born  May  13,  1857;  died  1858. 


550  APPENDIX. 

LXVI.  Annie  M.  Morris  married  Judge  Caleb  S.  Layton. 

LXVII.  Ann  Ridgely  married  Charles  Irenee  du  Pont,  Esq., 
May  ii,  1 841. 

172.  Amelia  E. ,  born  February  26,  1842. 

173.  Henry  Ridgely,  born  November  19,  1848. 

Charles  Irenee  du  Pont  was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  March  29, 
1797.  He  was  the  son  of  Victor  du  Pont  and  Gabrielle  Josephine  La- 
fitte  de  Pelleport.  His  grandfather  was  Pierre  Samuel  du  Pont  de 
Nemours ;  he  was  educated  at  Mount  Airy,  Germantown.  In  man- 
hood he  engaged  in  various  manufacturing  employments  on  the  Brandy- 
wine.     He  died  January  31,  1869,  aged  72  years. 

LXVIII.   Henry  Ridgely  married  Virginia  Jenkins. 

174.  Ruth  Ann,  born  June  28,  1848. 

LXIX.   Nicholas  Ridgely  married  Mary  Tilden,  December  18, 

1845- 

175.  Mary  Tilden,  born  August  11,  1849. 

LXX.   Eugene  Ridgely  married  M.  A.  Mifflin. 

176.  Daniel  Mifflin. 

LXXI.  Williamina  M.  Ridgely  married  Alexander  Johnson. 

177.  Henry  Ridgely,  born  March,  1847. 

178.  Nicholas  Ridgely. 

179.  Ann  du  Pont,  born  December,  1856. 

LXXII.  Edward  Ridgely  married  Elizabeth  Comegys. 
t  180.  Harriet  Moore. 

181.  Edward  du  Pont. 

182.  Sarah  Baning. 

183.  Henry. 

LXXIII.  John  Cadwalader,  Sr.,  married  (first)  Mary,  daugh- 
ter of  Hon.  Horace  Binney,  of  Philadelphia,  October,  1828. 

184.  Mary  Binney,  born  September  22,  1829;  died  May  26,  1861. 

185.  Elizabeth  Binney,  born  September  22,  1831. 

Mrs.  Mary  Cadwalader,  born  February  27,  1805;  died  1830. 

LXXIII.  John  Cadwalader  married  (second)  Mrs.  Henrietta 
Maria  McIlvaine,  daughter  of  Charles  N.  Bancker,  1833. 

186.  Sarah  Bancker,  born  1834. 

187.  Frances,  born  1835. 


APPENDIX.  551 

188.  Thomas,  born  1837;  died  August,  1841. 

189.  Charles  E.,  born  November  5,  1839. 

190.  Anne,  born  1841. 

191.  John,  Jr.,  born  June  27,  1843. 

192.  George,  born  1845. 

Hon.  Joint  Cadwalader  was  born  at  No.  172  (old  number)  Chestnut 
street,  Philadelphia.  He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  graduated  in  the  Department  of  Arts  in  1821.  He  entered 
the  office  of  the  Hon.  Horace  Binney,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Phila- 
delphia bar  September  30,  1825.  He  at  once  took  a  high  position  as  a 
lawyer,  and  was  distinguished  for  the  thoroughness,  accuracy  and  variety 
of  his  learning  and  his  success  as  a  counsellor.  In  1855  he  was  elected 
a  member  of  Congress  for  the  Fifth  Congressional  District,  composed 
of  a  portion  of  Philadelphia  and  Montgomery  counties,  and  served  for 
a  single  term,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  the  late  Owen  Jones.  Upon 
the  death  of  the  Hon.  John  K.  Kane,  Mr.  Cadwalader  was  appointed 
to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  United  States  District  Court,  by  President 
Buchanan.  Judge  Cadwalader  died  January  26,  1879. 

LXXIV.  George  Cadwalader  married  Frances  Mease. 

193.  Frances,  died  an  infant. 

General  George  Cadwalader  was  born  in  Philadelphia  (see  No.  74). 
He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  graduated  at 
that  institution  in  1823.  He  did  not  engage  in  any  profession,  but 
became  the  assistant  of  his  father,  General  Thomas  Cadwalader,  who 
was  the  agent  of  the  Penn  estates — to  which  position  he  succeeded  his 
father. 

He  in  early  manhood  manifested  a  taste  for  military  affairs,  and  at 
the  age  of  18  joined  the  First  Troop  of  Philadelphia  City  Cavalry. 
During  the  Mexican  war  General  Cadwalader  served  in  that  country 
under  General  Scott.  He  was  breveted  Major-General  for  gallant  ser- 
vice at  Chapultepec.  In  1861,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  he 
was  assigned  to  a  command  under  General  Robert  Patterson  in  the 
Shenandoah  valley.  He  continued  in  the  service  during  the  entire  war, 
and  held  a  number  of  responsible  positions.  General  Cadwalader  mar- 
ried Miss  Fanny  Mease,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Mease,  of  Philadelphia. 

General  Cadwalader  died  February  3,  1879.  His  wife  died  January 
9,  1880. 

LXXVIII.  Thomas  Americus  Erskine  married  Louisa, 
daughter  of  G.  Newnham,  Esq.,  of  New  Timber  Place,  Sussex,  and 
relict  of  Thomas  Adlington,  Cheshire,  May  12,  1830. 


5  5  2  APPENDIX. 

lxxix.  John   Cadwalader  Erskine,   in   the   East   India 

C.  C.  S.,  Bengal,  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  John  Martyn,  Esq., 
of  county  Tyrone. 

194.  William  Macnaghten,  born  January  7,  1841. 

195.  Fanny  Macnaghten. 

LXXX.  Edward    Morris   Erskine   married    Mrs.    Caroline 

LOUGHNAN. 

LXXXII.  Frances  Erskine  married  Gabriel  Shawe,  Esq., 
1824. 

LXXXIII.  Mary  Erskine  married  Herman  Count  de  Baum- 
garten,  of  Bavaria,  June  16,  1832. 

LXXXIV.  Sevilla  Erskine  married  Henry  Francis  How- 
ard, Esq. 

LXXXV.  Stewarta  Erskine  married  Yates  Brown,  Esq.,  Oc- 
tober 26,  1828. 

LXXXVI.  Elizabeth  Erskine  married  St.  Vincent  Keene 
Hawkins  Whitshed,  Esq.,  only  son  of  Admiral  Sir  James  Hawkins 
Whitshed,  Bart.,  K.  C.  B.,  April  1,  1832. 

LXXXVII.  Harriet  Erskine  married  Charles  Woodmass,  Esq., 
of  Alveston,  county  Warwick,  August  29,  1833. 

XCI.  Travis  Cochran  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Isaac  Norris, 
Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  April  30,  1857. 

196.  Mary  Norris. 

197.  John  Travis. 

198.  Isaac  Norris. 

199.  Fanny  Travis. 

XCII.  William  Cochran  married  Eliza,  daughter  of  John  R. 
Penrose,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  March  20,  1857. 

200.  William  Greene,  born  December  27,  1857. 

201.  Harriet  Penrose,  born  November  5,  i860. 

XCIII.  Annie  Bond  Cochran  married  Samuel  L.  Shober,  No- 
vember 16,  1858. 

202.  John  Bedford. 

203.  Elizabeth  Travis. 

204.  Samuel  L. 


APPENDIX.  553 

205.  Fanny  Cochran. 

206.  Anne  Bond. 

207.  Reginald. 

XCV.   George  Cochran  married  Augusta,  daughter  of  Andrew 
K.  Hay,  Esq.,  of  Winslow,  N.  J. 

208.  George  Bond. 

209.  Elizabeth  L. 

XCVI.  William  Anthony  Smith  married   Miss  Rebecca  C. 
Bellas,  of  Sunbury,  Pa.,  May  23,  1842. 

210.  William  Bellas,  born  April  13,  1843;  died  December  5,  1865. 

211.  Thomas  Rudolph,  born  August  12,  1844. 

212.  Henry  Hobart,  born  June  30,  1846. 

213.  Hugh  Bellas,  born  March  23,  1850. 
Mrs.  Rebecca  C.  Smith  died  August  8,  1861. 

XCVII.    Thomas   Duncan   Smith   married    Miss   Sarah   W. 
Barns,  February  3,  1847. 

214.  Mary  Barns,  born  November  27,  1847. 

215.  Thomas  Duncan,  born  November  21,   1849;    died  December 
31,  i860. 

216.  William  Rudolph,  born  October  13,  1851. 

217.  Catherine,  born  1853;  died  1855. 

218.  Sarah  Wurts,  born  May  5,  1855. 

219.  Anne  Hobart,  born  December  20,  i860. 

220.  Henry  A.,  born  February  3,  1864. 

XCVII  I.    Henrietta    Williamina    Smith    married    Robert 
Enoch  Hobart,  of  Pottstown,  Pa.,  July  30,  1835. 

221.  William  Smith,  born  April  4,  1836. 

222.  Sarah  May,  born  March  2,  1838. 

223.  Eliza  Anthony,  born  August  4,  1840. 

224.  Robert  Enoch,  born  February  20,  1843;  died  November  14, 

1843. 

225.  John  Henry,  born  September  25,  1844. 

226.  Henrietta,  born  May,  1847. 

XCIX.  Anne  Amelia   Smith  married   John   Potts    Hobart, 
Esq.,  April  5,  1838. 

227.  Eliza  Smith,  born  March  14,  1839. 

228.  Julia  Biddle,  born  March  29,  1841;  died  June  13,  1879. 

229.  Joanna  Holland,  born  February  12,  1843. 


554  APPENDIX. 

230.  Mary,  born  February  3,  1845. 

231.  Nathaniel  Potts. 

232.  Cecil,  died  1877. 

233.  David  McKnight. 

Mr.  John  Potts  Hobart  is  an  attorney  at  law,  son  of  Nathaniel  P. 
and  Joanna  Hobart. 

CIII.  Richard  Moore  Smith  married  Miss  Frances  Boyden, 
January  3,  1856. 

234.  Penelope  Eunice,  born  October  13,  1858;  died  January  23, 
1859. 

235.  Mary  Frances,  born  February  18,  i860;  died  March  22,  1861. 

CIV.  Penelope  Campbell  Smith  married  William  Henry, 
Esq.,  August  2,  1848. 

CV.  John  Montgomery  Smith  married  Miss  Antonia  Hil- 
debrand,  October  14,  1862. 

236.  William  Hildebrand,  born  July  10,  1863;  died  January  1, 
1869. 

237.  Richard  Montgomery,  born  April  21,  1866. 

238.  Henrietta  Williamina,  born  July  14,  1867;  died  January  16, 
1869. 

Mrs.  Antonia  Smith  died  August  17,  1868. 

CV.  John  Montgomery  Smith  married  (second)  Mrs.  Jane 
M.  Crawford,  November  23,  1870. 

239.  Hamilton  Vandyke,  born  August  13,  1871;  died  March  24, 
1872. 

240.  Frances  Amelia,  born  July  24,  1872;  died  December  1,  1872. 

241.  Etta  Milton,  born  September  1,  1873. 

CVIII.  Mary  Eliza  Smith  married  George  W.  Dedrick. 

CXI.  Horace  WemySS  Smith  married  Rebecca,  daughter  of 
Isaac  Dorland,  Esq.,  of  Huntingdon,  Pa.,  April  26,  1849. 

242.  Eleanor  Matilda,  born  February  2,  1850;  died  April  20, 
1865. 

243.  Richard  Penn  (third),  born  November  6,  1851. 

CXVI.  Richard  Penn  Smith*  (second)  married  Lucy  Piper, 
daughter  of  John  George  and  Mary  A.  Woods,  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa., 
November  16,  1863. 

*  Commonly  known  as  "  Colonel'1''  Richard  Penn  Smkh. 


APPENDIX.  555 


244 
245 
246 

247 
Mrs 


Richard  Tenn  (fourth),  born  May  31,  186: 
Mary  Fleming,  born  August  17,  1867. 
Morton  Wistar,  born  June  23,  1872. 
Edward  Gould,  born  December  15,  1875. 
Lucy  Piper  Smith,  born  May  5,  1S43 


CXVII.  Isabella  Penn  Smith  married  James  E.  Fleming,  April 
2S,  1859. 

248    Lizzie  Schroder,  born  January  20,  i860;  died  June  23,  i860. 

249.  Williamina,  born  September  17,  1863;  died  January  27,  1864. 

250.  Maria  Smith,  born  June  22,  1865;  died  July  11,  1865. 

251.  Eliza  Gould,  born  July  31,  1866;  died  August  1,  1866. 

252.  Maria  Lewis,  born  August  8,  1871. 

253.  Isaac  Wistar,  born   November   17,   1875;    died   December  5, 
1875- 

CXVIII    William  Moore   Smith   married    Elizabeth    Beede 

Melville,  August  4,  1S65. 

254.  William  Moore,  born  January  19,  1867;  died  January  7,  1S77. 

255.  Isabella  Knisell,  born  February  10,  1868. 

256.  Edna  Gould,  born  May  7,  1874. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Beebe  Smith  was  born  May  1,  1841. 

CXIX.  Eliza  Arnold  Smith  married  Edward  Wanton  Gould, 
December  24,  1861. 

257.  David  James,  born  March  24.  1863. 

258.  Edward  Wanton,  Jr.,  born  November  5,  1866. 

CXXII.   LOUisa  NlXOIl  GoldsborOUgh  married  William    E. 
Harrison,  Esq.,  May  15,  1844. 

259.  William  E.,  born  May  3,  1845;  died  October,  1846. 

CXXIII    Sarah  Yeabury  GoldsborOUgh  married  Mr.  James 
B.  Steele,  of  Eldon,  Md.,  1839. 

260.  Louisa  Nixon. 

261.  Williamina  E.  E.,  born  1844. 

262.  Ellen  Goldsborough,  born  December  12,  1846. 

263.  Sophia  Isabelle. 

264.  Clarence. 

cxxiv.  Williamina  Elizabeth  Ennals  Goldsborough 

married  Mr.  Francis  Jenkins  Henry,  1S36. 

265.  Mary  Nevitt,  born  1837. 

266.  John  Campbell,  born  1840. 


55^  APPENDIX. 

267.  Nannie  Ogle  Buchanan,  born  1842. 

268.  Elizabeth  Nixon,  born  1844. 

269.  Williamina  G.,  born  1846. 

270.  Francis  Jenkins,  born  1847. 

271.  Robert  G.,  born  1849. 

272.  Nicholas  G.,  born  1852. 

273.  Hampton,  born  1853. 

CXXVii.  William  Tilghman  Goldsborough  married  Miss 

Ellen  Lloyd,  of  Wye  House,  Talbot  county,  Md.,  1838. 

274.  Charles,  born  1839. 

275.  William  Tilghman,  born  1840. 

276.  Edward  Lloyd,  born  1843. 

277.  Ellen  Lloyd,  born  1848. 

278.  Fitzhugh,  born  1849. 

279.  Nannie  Lloyd,  born  1852. 

280.  Sally  Murray,  born  1854. 

281.  Richard  Tilghman,  born  1855. 

282.  Alice  Lloyd,  born  1858. 

283.  Mary  Lee,  born  1863. 

cxxxi.  Williamina  Elizabeth  Ennals  Goldsborough 

married  William  W.  Laird,  Esq.,  son  of  Rev.  James  Laird. 

284.  James  Winder,  born  1838;  died  1864. 

285.  Charles  G.,  born  1840;  died  1840. 

286.  William  Henry,  born  1842. 

287.  Martha  Pierce,  born  1845. 

288.  Philip  Dundrige,  born  1846. 

CXXXII.  Mary  Tilghman  Goldsborough  married  William 
Goldsborough,  of  Myrtle  Grove. 

289.  Robert  H.,  born  1841;  died  1865. 

290.  Susan  Elizaeeth,  born  1842. 

291.  William,  born  1843. 

292.  Charles. 

293.  Mary  T.,  died  1849. 

cxxxiii.  Caroline  F.  Goldsborough  married  Mr.  p.  p. 

Davidson,  of  Virginia. 

294.  Mary  F.,  born  1840;  died  1845. 

295.  Nannie  S. ,  born  1842. 

296.  Philip  P.,  born  1843. 

297.  Sarah  G.,  born  1845. 


APPENDIX.  557 

298.  Charles  G.,  born  1846. 

299.  William  F.,  born  1848. 

CXXXiv.  William    Henry  Goldsborough   married   Miss 

Rosa  J.   Packard,  daughter  of  Professor  Packard,  of  the  Theological 
Seminary  of  Virginia. 

CXXXVII.  Richard  T.  Goldsborough  married    Miss    Mary 
Henry. 

cxxxvnr.  Henrietta  Maria  Goldsborough  married  Mr. 

D.  M.  Henry. 

CXXXIX.   Charles    F.  Goldsborough    married    Miss    Char- 
lotte A.  P.  Henry. 

CXL    Mary  Rebecca  McElwee  married  J.   M.  Sleek,  June 

30,  1841. 

300.  Mary  Rebecca. 

301.  George. 

CXL.  Mary  Rebecca  McElwee  married  (second)  William  J. 
Rock,  April  23,  1857. 

302.  Frederick  Jackson,  born  1857. 

303.  Wallace  Shippen,  born  1859. 

304.  Florence  Katherine,  born  1862. 

305.  Frank  Marburg,  born  1866. 

CXLll.  Sarah  Yeates  McElwee  married  Townsend  Whelen, 

October  21,  1847. 

306.  Henry,  born  August  20,  1848. 

307.  Charles  Smith,  born  July  28,  1850. 

308.  Kingston  Goddard,  born  October  5,  185 1. 

309.  Alfred  Whelen,  born  June  9,  1854. 

310.  Sarah  Yeates,  born  August  7,  1856. 

Townsend  Whelen,  son  of  Israel  and   Mary  Whelen,  born   in   Phila- 
delphia, April  3,  1822;  died  October  26,  1875. 

CXLiv.  Catharine  Yeates  McElwee  married  Evans  w. 

Shippen,  November  25,  1852. 

311.  Frances  Huidekoper,  born  November  18,  1853. 

312.  Catharine  Yeates,  born  November  5,  1857. 

313.  Franklin,  born  September  9,  1865. 

314.  Herman  Huidekoper,  born  September  4,  1869. 


558  APPENDIX. 

315.  Harbert,  born  November  1,  1870;  died  November  15,  1870. 

316.  Harry  Houston,  born  February  12,  1872. 

317.  Mary  Elizabeth,  born  November  23,  1873;   died  October  25, 
1876. 

CXLV.   Charles  Edmund  Kimball  married  Miss  Sigismunda 
Stribling,  daughter  of  Commodore  Stnbling. 

318.  Theodore  Horatio,  born  November  8,  1854. 

319.  William  Ware,  born  August  3,  1857. 

CXLVI.  Theodore  Horatio  Kimball  married  Miss  Elizabeth 
Fuller,  daughter  of  Richard  Fuller,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  April  13,  1858. 

320.  Richard  Fuller,  born  November  3,  1859. 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Kimball  died  November  27,  1861. 

CXLIX.  John   Hill   Brinton,  M.  D.,  married    Sarah   Ward, 
daughter  of  Rev.  F.  DeWitt  Ward,  D.  D.,  of  Geneseo,  N.  Y. 
321     George,  born  April  11,  1868. 

322.  John  Hill,  born  December  13,  1870. 

323.  Ward,  1        .         (  born  May  27,  1873. 

324.  Jasper  Yeates,  J  '   (born  May  27,  1873;  died  September 
22,  1876. 

325.  Jasper  Yeates  (second),  born  October  5,  1878. 

CLI.  Sarah  Frederica  Brinton  married   J.  M.  DaCosta, 

M.  D.,  April  26,  i860. 

326.  Charles  Frederick,  born  December,  1874. 

CLI  I.  Margaret  Yeates  Brinton  married   Nathaniel  Chap- 
man Mitchell,  November  5,  1868. 

327.  Mary  Brinton,  born  October  20,  1869. 

328.  John  Kearsley,  born  October  15,  187 1. 

329.  Elizabeth  Kearsley,  born  October  31,  1877. 

CLlV.  Ellen   Matilda   Britton   married    Cornelius    Moore, 
M.  D.,  of  North  Carolina. 

CLIV.  John  Blodget  Britton  married  Miss  Fanny  B.  Horner, 
daughter  of  Joseph  Horner,  Esq.,  of  Warrington,  Va.,  October  1,  1874. 

CLVII.  Harriet  Emily  Britton  married  Mr.  S.  R.  Bowen,  of 

the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  August  15,  1844. 

330.  John  Joseph,  born  December  13,  1848. 

331.  William  Cornelius,  born  November  11,  1851. 


ATTEND  IX.  559 

CLXII.   William  Smith  Lincoln  married   Mary,  daughter  of 
Robert  Given,  Esq.,  of  Centrevdle.  Pa.,  December  i,  1842. 
332.  John  George,  born  October  1,  1844. 


333 
334 
335 
336 
337 
33S 
339 


Margaret  Taylor,  born  January  26,  1846. 
Robert  Given,  born  September  12,  1847. 
Julia  Matilda,  born  September  23,  1849. 
William  Smith,  born  September  25,  185 1. 
ELINOR  Matilda. 

Hattie  Bell,  born  March  4,  1856. 
Harry,  born  1858. 


CLXIII.   Thomas  Blodget  Lincoln  married  Sophia,  daughter 
of  Michael  W.  Ash,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  March  1,  1S35. 

340.  Elinor  Matilda. 

341.  Harriet. 

342.  Sophia. 

343.  James  Rush. 

Mrs.  Thomas  B.  Lincoln  died   at   Belmont,    Philadelphia,   January, 
1844. 

CLXIV.  Julia  Maria  Lincoln  married  Rodert  Williams,  Esq., 
of  Hollidaysburg,  Pa.,  1840. 

344.  Elinor  Matilda,  born  April  19,  1841. 

345.  Robert  Berkley,  born  July  1,  1845. 

346.  Sarah  Barns,  born  August  24,  184S. 

347.  William  Lincoln. 

348.  Richard  Currie,  born  June  10,  1855  ;  died  March  29,  1879. 

CLXVI.  Rebecca    Smith    Blodget  married   Samuel   Calvin, 
Esq.,  attorney  at  law,  December  26,  1843. 

349.  Eliza  Blodget,  born  November  27,  1844. 

350.  Matthew  Calvin,  born  January  1,  1847. 

351.  John  Blodget,  born  Aprd  24,  1853;  died  July  14,  1853. 

CLXVII..  Eliza  Duncan  Blodget  married  Mr.  Alfred  Adams 
Craine,  June  24,  1853. 

352.  John  Blodget,  born  March  5,  1854;  died  February  25,  i860. 

353.  Rebecca  Calvin,  born  July  31,  1859. 

CLXIX.   Mary  M.  Morris  married  Caleb  S.  Pennewill,    June 
17,  1869. 

CLXXII.   Amelia  E.  du  Pont  married  Eugene  du  Pont,  July 
5,  1866. 


56o  APPENDIX. 

354.  Anne  Rtdgely,  born  April  22,  1867. 

355.  Alexis  Irenee,  born  August  2,  1869. 

356.  Eugene. 

357.  Amelia. 

358.  Julia  Sophia,  born  1877. 

CLXXIV.  Ruth  Ann  Ridgely  married  Richard  Harrington. 

359.  Henry  Ridgely. 

360.  Samuel  M. 

CLXXVI.  Daniel  Mifflin  Ridgely  married  Miss  Ella  Madden. 

CLXXXIV.  Mary  Binney  Cadwalader  married  William 
Henry  Rawle,  September  13,  1849. 

361.  Mary  Cadwalader,  born  December  12,  1850. 

362.  William,  born  September  3,  1855;  died  April  25,  i860. 

363.  Edith,  born  April  29,  1861. 

Mrs.  Mary  Binney  Rawle  died  May  26,  1861. 

CLXXXV.  Elizabeth  Binney  Cadwalader  married  George 

Harrison  Hare,  of  the  United  States  navy. 
No  issue. 

CXC.  Anne  Cadwalader  married  Rev.  Henry  J.  Rowland, 
1878. 

364.  John  Cadwalader,  born  February  10,  1879. 

CXCI.  John  Cadwalader,  Jr.,  married  Mary  Helen,  third 
daughter  and  child  of  Joshua  Francis  Fisher,  of  Philadelphia,  April  17, 
1866. 

365.  Sophia,  born  February  6,  1867. 

366.  Mary  Helen,  born  March  19,  1871. 

367.  John,  born  February  24,  1874. 

Mrs.  Mary  Helen  Cadwalader  was  born  July  1,  1844. 

CCXVI.  William  Rudulph  Smith  married  Elizabeth  R., 
daughter  of  Dr.  George  Bailey,  October  7,  1875. 

368.  Laura.. 

CCXVIII.  Sarah  WurtS  Smith  married  Alfred  Whelen,  Esq., 
April  21,  1876. 

369.  Townsend,  born  March  6,  1877  (see  309). 

CCXXI.  William  Smith  Hobart  married  Frances  Laura, 
daughter  of  Isaac  Sanborn,  Esq.,  of  Peru,  N.  Y.,  January  5,  1865. 


APPENDIX.  56 ! 

370.  Mary  Henrietta,  born  October  3,  1S68. 

371.  Robert  Enoch  Hobart,  born  June  15,  1 S 7 4 . 

CCXXII.   Sarah   May  Hobart   married    William   J.    Rutter. 
Esq.,  of  Pottstown,  Pa. 

372.  Robert  Hobart. 

373.  Jessie  Ives. 

374.  Charles. 

375.  William  Ives. 

CCXXIII.  Eliza  Anthony  Hobart  married  John  W.  Royer, 
Esq.,  October  25,  1865. 

376.  Henrietta  Hobart. 

377.  Sarah  Whelen. 

378.  John  W. 

379.  Eliza  Hobart. 

CCXXVII.  Eliza  Smith  Hobart  married  John  W.  Hunt,  M.  D. 

380.  Myra. 

CCXXIX.  Joanna  Holland  Hobart  married  Mr.  E.  F.  Cham- 
bers Davis,  of  Pottsville,  September,  1873. 

381.  John  Hobart,  born  July  27,  1874. 

382.  George  Linn  Lachlan. 

CCXXXI.  Nathaniel  Potts  Hobart  married  Miss  Anne  Rose- 
berry,  October,  1875. 

383.  Blanche  Roseberry. 

CCXLIII.  Richard  Penn  Smith  (third)  married  Kate  Cecelia, 
daughter  of  Joseph  Russell,  of  Philadelphia,  April  28,  1874. 

384.  Richard  Penn  (fifth),  born  October  13,  1875. 

385.  Russell  Moore,  born  January  26,  1877. 

386.  Edgar  Wemyss,  born  September  2,  1879. 

CCLX.  Louisa   Nixon    Steele    married    Mr.   Joseph    Henry 
Hooper. 

387.  Mary  Meritt. 

388.  William  Henry. 

389.  Harry  Ennals. 

390.  Agnes  Pitt. 

391.  Muncy. 

CCLXII.  Ellen   Goldsborough   Steele   married    Mr.    J.    D. 
Richards,  of  Pennsylvania. 
36 


562  APPENDIX. 

CCLXIII.  Sophia    Isabella    Steele    married    Walter    Mead 
Buck,  Esq.,  of  England. 

CCLXV.  Mary  Nevitt  Henry  married  Mr.  Selby  Spence, 
of  Worcester  county,  Maryland. 

CCLXVI.  John  Campbell  Henry  married  Miss  Nannie  Lake. 

392.  Bessy  Tryon. 

cclxvii.  Nannie  Ogle  Buchanan  Henry  married  Mr.  j. 

N.  Steele. 

393.  James. 

CCLXVIII.  Elizabeth   Nixon   Henry   married    William   t. 

GOLDSBOROUGH. 

CCLXix.  Williamina  Goldsborough  Henry  married  Mr. 

D.  S.  Meese. 

394.  Robert  G. 

395.  Mary  Nixon,  born  September  10,  1877. 

CCCVI.  Henry  Whelen  married  Laura,  daughter  of  William 
S.  Baker,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  October  21,  1875. 

396.  William  Baker,  born  July  6,  1877. 

397.  Laura,  born  September  6,  1878. 

CCCVII.  Charles  Smith  Whelen  married  Mignonette, 
daughter  of  William  A-  Violett,  Esq.,  of  New  Orleans,  January  14, 
1880. 

CCCVIII.  Kingston  Goddard  Whelen  married  Miss  Mary 
Roberts  Harbf.rt,  October  15,  1S74. 

398.  Sarah  Yeates,  born  December  21,  1875. 

399.  Rebecca  Harbert,  born  May  25,  1877. 

400.  Virginia  Harbert,  born  October  19,  1879. 

CCCIX.  Alfred  Whelen,  M.  D.,  married  Sarah  Wurts  Smith 
(see  No.  218). 

CCCXI.  Frances  Huidekoper  Shippen  married  William 
Robert  Gill,  Esq.,  May  3,  1875. 

cccxxxin.  Margaret  Taylor  Lincoln  married  Mr.  w.  b. 

Watson,  February  6,  1878. 


APPENDIX.  563 

CCCXXXIV.  Robert  Given  Lincoln  married  Miss  Martha 
Campbell,  of  McConnellstown. 

401.  William  Campbell. 

CCCXLIII.  James  Rush  Lincoln  married  Eliza  Aldridge, 
daughter  of  Benjamin  R.  Blake,  Esq.,  of  Virginia,  March  28,  1865. 

402.  Rush  Aldridge  Hunt,  born  April  8,  1866. 
Mrs.  Lincoln  died  May  12,  1866. 

CCCXLIX.  Eliza  Blodget  Calvin  married  George  W.  Smith, 
M.  D. ,  of  Hollidaysburg,  Pa.,  April  16,  1S74. 

403.  Rebecca  Calvin,  born  January  7,  1875. 

404.  Mary  McDonald,  born  March  16,  1876. 

CCCLXI.  Mary  Cadwalader  Rawle  married  Frederic 
Rhinelander  Jones,  March  22,  1870. 

405.  Beatrice  Cadwalader. 

I  have  completed,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able,  the  record  through  six 
generations  of  the  descendants  of  William  and  Williamina  Moore,  of 
Moore  Hall. 

Of  necessity,  as  in  every  case  of  a  genealogy  so  long,  and  where  the 
progeny  has  been  so  numerous,  there  are  many  omissions,  and  I  suppose 
there  must  be  some  mistakes;  but  I  have  done  the  best  that  I  could  do 
under  the  circumstances. 

As  to  the  character  of  these  descendants,  the  reader  will  have  noticed 
they  intermarried  with  prominent  and  influential  families  of  England 
and  America.  Many  have  gained  high  and  honorable  places  in  the 
learned  professions,  and  others  deserve  a  fair  place  in  the  ranks  of 
literature.  I  have  known  many,  too,  who,  without  any  worldly  emi- 
nence, and  with  no  distinctions  which  literary  fame  gave  to  them,  have 
held  a  place  which,  in  any  true  view,  ranks  more  highly  than  the 
highest  of  this  poor  earth;  men  and  women,  in  private  stations— some 
in  private  stations  that  were  but  humble — who  discharged  through  long 
lives,  and  under  many  and  trying  vicissitudes,  their  duty  to  God  and  to 
man,  "having  their  eyes  only  on  the  Master's  service,  and  looking  forward 
to  'the  recompense  of  reward.'  "  They  have  not  been  borne  to  honors 
on  the  corrupted  currents  of  this  world.  Their  reward  will  come  where 
there  is  "  no  shuffling,"  and  "  where  the  action  lies  in  his  true  nature." 


564  APPENDIX. 


No.  XIII.— Page  542. 


Thomas  Duncan  Smith. 

Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  second  son  of  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D., 
and  Rebecca  Smith,  was  born  at  Philadelphia,  on  the  18th  of  November, 
1760,  and  was  baptized  by  the  Rev.  J.  Duche,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Peters  and 
Mr.  Thomas  William  Moore  being  sponsors. 

Of  his  youth  we  know  but  little.  He  was  educated  at  the  College  and 
Academy  of  Philadelphia,  where,  under  the  training  and  watchful  care 
of  his  father,  he  became  an  excellent  classical  scholar,  and  graduated 
with  honor  at  the  commencement  held  in  June,  1776.  Upon  leaving 
college  he  studied  medicine,  and,  having  completed  his  studies,  settled 
himself  at  Huntingdon,  then  a  small  town  on  the  Juniata  river,  which 
had  been  laid  out  by  Dr.  Smith  in  1767.  It  subsequently  became  and 
still  remains  the  county  town  of  Huntingdon  county,  which  was  erected 
in  pursuance  of  an  act  of  the  Legislature  on  the  20th  day  of  September, 
17S7.  The  new  county  had  formerly  been  embraced  within  the  limits 
of  Bedford  county,  from  which  it  was  stricken  off  in  compliance  with 
the  necessities  and  demands  of  the  people;  but  the  measure  met  at  that 
day  the  most  strenuous  opposition,  and  it  was  only  after  a  determined 
struggle  that  it  was  accomplished.  Immediately  after  the  erection  of 
the  county,  offices  were  established  for  the  transaction  of  the  public 
business,  and  appointments  made  to  fill  them.  Among  others,  Thomas 
Duncan  Smith,  of  the  town  of  Huntingdon,  was  duly  commissioned  one 
of  the  Justices  of  the  county  on  the  23d  day  of  November,  1  787.  Here 
in  his  dual  capacity  as  physician  and  magistrate  he  continued  to  reside 
until  his  death,  which  took  place,  after  a  severe  attack  of  fever,  on  the 
9th  day  of  July,  1  789.  As  a  young  physician  he  is  said  to  have  been 
very  successful  in  his  practice,  and  by  his  talents  and  deportment  to 
have  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  all.  As  a  magistrate  he  was  firm  and 
decisive,  requiring  from  all  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  often  adjusting 
difficulties  among  neighbors  without  legal  process.  A  beautiful  tribute 
to  his  memory,  by  his  father,  may  be  seen  in  his  will,  on  page  419  of 
this  volume,  and  his  tomb  may  be  found  in  the  large  cemetery  on  the 
hill  overlooking  the  town  of  Huntingdon,  and  from  which,  looking  up 
and  down  the  Juniata  river,  can  be  had  one  of  the  finest  views  along  its 


APPENDIX.  565 

whole  course.  During  his  short  life  he  had  passed  through  "stirring 
times,"  and  not  the  least  of  them  in  that  portion  of  our  State  where  he 
had  located,  and  which  was  then  becoming  settled  by  a  wild  and  adven- 
turous population.  He  was  a  good  and  useful  citizen,  and  died  in  the 
prime  of  life  and  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness,  deeply  regretted  by  the 
community  in  which  he  lived. 

Cotemporaneous  with  the  erection  of  Huntingdon  county  was  the 
framing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  was  signed  at 
Philadelphia  on  the  17th  day  of  September,  17S7.  Its  adoption,  as  is 
well  known,  met  with  much  opposition  in  several  of  the  States,  and  in 
Huntingdon  county  became  violent  and  riotous.  The  leader  of  the 
opponents  was  General  William  McAlevy,  who  had  acquired  a  military 
title  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  being  mentioned  as  Colonel  Mc- 
Alevy in  the  records  of  that  struggle,  and  in  connection  with  the  alarms 
caused  by  the  Tories  and  Indians.  His  residence  was  at  McAlevy's 
Fort,  in  Standing  Stone  valley,  a  place  that  still  bears  his  name,  and  he 
possessed  much  political  influence  among  the  people.  The  excitement 
of  the  times  led  to  attempts  by  large  bodies  of  armed  men  to  obstruct 
the  performance  of  public  duty  by  the  officials  of  the  county,  and  to  the 
offering  of  the  grossest  indignities  to  them  personally,  of  which  Thomas 
Duncan  Smith  came  in  for  his  share.  Minute  details  of  the  events  of 
those  days  may  be  found  in  the  "  Colonial  Records; "  but  to  give  some 
idea  of  the  feelings  governing  the  people,  I  shall  quote  somewhat  from 
M.  S.  Lytle's  "History  of  Huntingdon  County:  " 

"  Colonel  John  Cannan,  member  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council 
from  Huntingdon  county,  was  the  first  against  whom  there  was  any 
manifestation  of  enmity.  On  the  first  day  of  the  court,  in  March,  1788, 
a  number  of  men,  bearing  bludgeons  and  carrying  an  effigy  of  Colonel 
Cannan,  entered  the  town.  Justices  Phillips  and  Henderson  left  the 
bench,  the  courts  being  then  in  session,  and  met  the  mob  at  the  upper 
end  of  Allegheny  street,  and  endeavored  to  dissuade  them  from  a  dis- 
turbance of  the  peace,  which  they  seemed  to  have  in  contemplation. 
This  effort,  however,  was  unsuccessful.  They  marched  down  the  street 
to  the  house  in  which  the  courts  were  sitting.  There  they  made  so 
much  noise  that  it  was  impossible  to  proceed  with  business,  and,  after 
they  had  been  several  times  warned  to  desist  from  this  outrage,  the 
sheriff  was  directed  to  arrest  the  one  who  seemed  the  most  turbulent, 
and  commit  him  to  prison.  When  he  had  been  taken  into  custody 
a  riot  ensued,  and  he  was  rescued  by  those  who  were  acting  with  him 
in  this  violation  of  the  law.  An  indictment  was  immediately  drawn 
against  the  principals,  presented  to  the  Grand  Jury,  returned  a  true 
bill,  and  entered  upon  the  records  of  the   Court  of  Quarter  Sessions ; 


566  APPENDIX. 

but  as  preparations  could  not  then  be  made  for  trial,  the  case  was  con- 
tinued until  the  next  sessions. 

"  In  the  following  May  a  battalion  of  militia,  which  had  been  organ- 
ized by  Benjamin  Elliott,  Lieutenant  of  the  county,  was  ordered  to 
assemble  in  Hartslog  valley.  Some  of  the  riotous  element  was  present, 
and  after  falling  into  ranks  made  an  objection  to  mustering  under 
Colonel  Cannan  and  Major  Spencer,  two  field  officers  who  had  been 
commissioned  when  the  battalion  belonged  to  Bedford  county,  and 
who,  it  was  alleged,  had  not  been  fairly  elected — Colonel  Woods,  then 
lieutenant  of  that  county,  having  obtained  the  return  of  such  men  as 
pleased  himself.  An  assault  was  made  upon  Colonel  Elliott,  and  he  re- 
ceived many  severe  blows  from  several  persons.  A  friend  of  his  who 
undertook  to  protect  him  and  restore  order,  was  treated  in  the  same 
violent  manner.  Elliott,  in  an  account  of  this  affair,  says  that  'they 
met,  some  for  the  purpose  of  doing  their  duty,  and  others  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  a  riot,  which  they  effected,  about  the  Federal  govern- 
ment, in  which  riot  I  was  very  ill  used  by  a  senseless  banditti,  who 
were  inflamed  by  a  number  of  false  publications  privately  circulated  by 
people  who  were  enemies  of  the  Federal  government.' 

"A  commander  was  then  selected  for  the  battalion,  who,  according 
to  previous  arrangement,  ordered  that  all  who  were  unwilling  to  serve 
under  the  field  officers  heretofore  named  should  withdraw  from  the 
ranks.  More  than  one-third  of  those  in  line  marched  out  and  formed  a 
new  line  in  front  of  the  rest.  Colonel  Elliott  and  the  field  officers, 
finding  that  the  roll  could  not  be  called,  and  that  to  remain  longer 
would  be  unavailing,  retired  from  the  field,  accompanied  by  that  part 
of  the  battalion  which  had  shown  a  disposition  to  render  obedience  to 
those  who  had  a  right  to  command  them. 

"A  few  days  afterwards  warrants  were  issued  by  Thomas  Duncan 
Smith,  one  of  the  justices,  for  the  arrest  of  three  of  the  leaders  in  this 
demonstration.  The  prisoners  were  taken  by  the  constable  before 
Thomas  McCune,  another  justice,  who  merely  required  them  to  enter 
into  their  own  recognizances  for  their  appearance  in  five  days  before 
Justice  Smith.  In  the  meantime  they  gathered  a  large  force  of  men, 
and  when  they  came  before  the  justice  on  the  day  appointed,  his  office 
was  instantly  filled  by  the  crowd.  They  refused  to  give  bail,  and  in- 
sisted that  they  should  be  committed.  As  he  was  aware  of  their  designs, 
and  as  he  was  unwilling  to  give  them  a  pretext  for  the  commission  of 
further  outrages,  he  declined  to  comply  with  their  request.  There  was, 
besides,  no  safe  prison  in  the  county,  none  having  been  yet  erected. 
He  reminded  them  of  this,  that  the  jail  was  but  a  '  block  house,'  and 
told  them  that,  as  two  of  them  were  owners  of  real  estate,  and  that  as  it 


APPENDIX.  50/ 

was  but  eight  days  until  the  June  Sessions  of  the  court,  he  would  release 
them  without  security.  Finding  that  he  was  unalterable  in  his  deter- 
mination, one  of  them,  who  was  subsequently  discovered  to  have  a  cut- 
lass concealed  under  his  coat,  grossly  insulted  him  and  threatened  him 
with  violence. 

"The  accused  and  the  crowd  left  the  office  and  the  town,  and  in  the 
afternoon,  about  one  o'clock,  returned,  more  than  ninety  in  number, 
sixty  of  them  armed  with  rifles  and  muskets,  and  the  remainder  with 
clubs,  scalping  knives  and  tomahawks.  They  marched  down  Allegheny 
street  to  Second,  up  Second  to  Penn,  up  Penn  to  the  Diamond,  where 
they  formed  into  a  circle.  Justice  Smith  was  then  called  into  the 
centre,  and  it  was  demanded  that  he  would  tear  up  the  warrants  upon 
which  the  arrests  had  been  made.  He  refused  to  do  so;  but,  having 
them  in  his  pocket,  he  delivered  them  to  one  of  the  leaders.  They 
were  then  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  man  who  must  have  been  the 
greatest  desperado  of  the  party,  as  he  had  previously  presented  a  rifle 
three  times  to  Justice  Smith's  breast,  and  was  only  prevented  by  the 
interference  of  others  from  taking  the  Justice's  life.  He  stepped  from 
the  ranks,  and  tearing  the  warrants  threw  some  of  the  pieces  at  the 
Justice,  saying,  '  See  now  what  it  is  to  be  a  magistrate.' 

"The  Clerk  of  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  was  next  required  to 
deliver  to  them  the  indictment  that  had  been  found  at  the  March  Ses- 
sions.    It  was  also  destroyed. 

"Justices  Smith  and  Henderson,  having  gone  to  the  house  on  Alle- 
gheny street  in  which  the  courts  were  held,  were  followed  by  a  number 
of  armed  men,  who  demanded  possession  of  the  Quarter  Sessions  docket. 
On  obtaining  it  they  obliterated  the  record  of  the  proceedings  against 
the  rioters,  the  part  which  was  obnoxious  to  them. 

"The  compliance  of  the  officers  with  these  demands  was  compelled 
by  intimidation  and  threats.  The  order-loving  portion  of  the  commu- 
nity was  completely  overawed. 

"  Information  was  then  brought  to  Smith  and  Henderson  that  per- 
sonal injury  was  intended  them.  Both  sought  safety,  the  former  by 
secreting  himself  and  the  latter  by  flight.  Their  own  houses  and  several 
others  were  searched  for  them.  The  sheriff  and  David  McMurtrie,  the 
latter  of  whom  had  incurred  their  enmity  at  the  review,  had  gone  from 
town  the  day  before,  and  avoided  unpleasant  consequences  to  them- 
selves. Two  constables  were  obliged  to  leave  their  homes  to  save  their 
lives.  The  sheriff  could  not  with  safety  go  into  the  country  to  serve 
writs,  and  all  kinds  of  business  was  affected  by  this  unhappy  state  of 
affairs. 

"Another  visit  was  feared,  and  on  the  5th  of  June,  1788,  a  full  state- 


568 


APPENDIX. 


mer.t  of  these  occurrences  was  sent  to  the  Council,  with  the  assurance 
that,  without  the  interposition  of  the  government,  order  could  not  be 
preserved. 

"The  Council  took  action  in  regard  to  the  matter  on  the  25th  of 
June.  The  chief  justice  and  one  of  the  judges  attended,  and  a  confer- 
ence was  held  relative  to  these  disturbances.  The  following  were  the 
proceedings,  as  found  in  the  minutes: 

"A  letter  from  two  of  the  magistrates  in  Huntingdon  county,  stating  that  the  daring 
and  violent  outrages  were  committed  by  a  lawless  set  of  men,  that  the  officers  of  the 
government  have  been  insulted  and  their  lives  endangered,  and  that  part  of  the  records 
of  the  court  have  been  destroyed  and  erased,  was  read,  praying  the  support  of  the 
government,  etc.     Thereupon, 

"■Resolved,  That  the  most  proper  and  effectual  measures  be  immediately  taken  to 
quell  the  disturbances  in  Huntingdon  county,  and  to  restore  order  and  good  govern- 
ment, and  that  the  Honorable  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  be  informed  that  the 
Supreme  Executive  will  give  them  aid  and  assistance,  which  the  laws  of  the  State  will 
warrant,  and  shall  be  found  necessary  to  accomplish  this  end. 

"The  language  of  this  resolution  was  more  vigorous  than  the  action 
which  followed  it.  Nothing  further  was  then  done  to  suppress  these 
high-handed  acts,  approaching  so  nearly  to  a  revolt  that  they  can 
scarcely  be  called  by  any  other  name. 

"After  the  Council  had  been  informed  of  them,  and  before  the  pas- 
sage of  the  resolution,  other  violence  had  been  committed.  Samuel 
Clinton,  who  had  made  himself  notorious  as  a  rioter,  Abraham  Smith 
and  William  McCune,  came  into  town  at  the  head  of  about  twenty  men, 
and  beat  Alexander  Irwin,  a  citizen.  The  same  party,  joined  perhaps 
by  others,  assaulted  the  houses  of  the  county  officers  at  night  with 
showers  of  stones.  The  persons  against  whom  there  seamed  to  be  the 
greatest  hatred  were  Robert  Galbraith,  President  Judge  of  the  County 
Court  of  Common  Pleas,  etc.,  Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  Justice,  Andrew 
Henderson,  Recorder  of  Deeds,  etc.,  and  Benjamin  Elliott,  Sheriff  and 
Lieutenant  of  the  County. 

"  Threats  were  sent  from  all  parts  of  the  county  that  death,  cropping. 
tarring  and  feathering,  should  be  inflicted  upon  these  or  any  other  offi- 
cers who  should  attempt  to  enforce  the  laws.  And  these  threats  were 
not  made  without  an  intention  of  carrying  them  into  execution.  Aboui 
the  middle  of  August,  one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  collected  from  all 
parts  of  the  county,  some  of  them  from  Huntingdon,  led  by  General 
McAlevy,  Abraham  Smith,  John  Smith  and  John  Little,  paraded  thr 
streets,  not  armed  as  before,  but  with  muskets  secreted,  as  was  supposed 
by  those  who  had  reason  to  fear  them.  The  officers  and  a  few  others, 
who  gave  their  support  to  the  government  under  the  constitution,  took 


AT  TEND  IX.  509 

refuge  in  the  house  01  Benjamin  Elliott,  and  there,  with  arms,  were  de- 
termined to  defend  themselves  and  to  repel  force  with  force.  Thus 
protected,  no  attack  was  made  upon  them.  The  enemy  was  content 
with  marching  through  the  streets,  under  flying  colors  and  to  the  music 
of  the  life.  They  met  at  William  Kerr's  house  and  elected  delegates  to 
a  convention  to  be  held  at  Lewisburg.  At  this  election  all  were  per- 
mitted to  vote  who  had  marched  in  the  ranks  that  day,  and  all  others 
were  excluded. 

"  This  political  animosity  continued  for  more  than  a  year.  The 
subject  was  again  before  the  Council  in  June,  1789.  On  the  12th  day 
of  that  month  a  committee,  to  whom  the  matter  had  been  referred, 
made  a  report,  which,  if  it  had  been  published  or  preserved,  would 
have  thrown  greater  light  upon  these  transactions  than  can  now  be 
obtained  from  any  source.  By  order  of  Council,  the  next  day  was 
assigned  for  further  action  upon  the  report.  On  the  13th  the  following 
resolution  was  adopted : 

"Resolved,  That  the  consideration  of  the  report  of  the  committee  to  whom  was  re- 
ferred the  representation  from  the  justices  and  others  of  Huntingdon  county,  relative 
to  some  late  disturbances  in  that  county,  be  postponed. 

"As  the  Council  had  delayed  so  long,  and  as  the  excitement  had 
subsided,  perhaps  no  wiser  course  could  have  been  pursued  at  that  time. 
This  daring  opposition  to  the  execution  of  the  laws,  formidable  as  it 
seemed,  was  not  sufficiently  powerful  to  accomplish  its  purposes,  and  its 
interference  with  the  functions  of  government  in  Huntingdon  county 
could  not  retard  their  progress  elsewhere.  Unassisted  by  similar  com- 
binations in  other  parts  of  the  State  or  nation,  its  ultimate  failure  and 
discontinuance  were  necessary  consequences;  and  while  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Executive  to  protect  the  incumbents  of  places  of  trust  in  their 
official  capacities,  and  the  lives  and  liberty  of  the  people,  yet  it  was 
good  policy  to  refrain  from  the  employment  of  military  power  until  it 
became  absolutely  unavoidable.  That  the  fury  of  this  political  tempest 
would  soon  exhaust  itself  must  have  been  apparent.  It  ended  without 
loss  of  life  or  limb,  and  with  but  slight  personal  injury  to  any.  We 
cannot  excuse  those  who  instigated  and  encouraged  this  unlawful  con- 
duct, but  the  civil  authorities  were  competent  to  bring  them  to  punish- 
ment. We  have  not  ascertained  whether  this  was  done.  One  of  them 
was  under  bonds  in  February,  1790,  for  his  appearance  at  the  next 
Supreme  Court  in  this  county,  but  whether  he  was  brought  to  trial,  and 
if  so,  whether  it  resulted  in  conviction,  we  are  not  informed. 

"It  has  generally  been  stated  and  believed  by  those  who  have  had 
nothing  but  traditionary  accounts  of  these  occurrences,  that  the  records 
of  the  court  were  burned  by  McAlevy  and  his  men,  but  there  is  no 


570  APPENDIX. 

official  evidence  that  such  was  the  case.  There  are  in  existence  authen- 
tic and  reliable  documents  which  seem  to  prove  conclusively  that  some 
of  the  records  were  torn  and  others  obliterated  by  erasures.  It  has  been 
said  that  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  burned, 
and  this  may  be  correct,  and  may  have  given  rise  to  the  statement  that 
other  papers  were  destroyed  in  the  same  way." 


No.  XIV.— Page  54; 


Hon.  Charles  Smith. 

Charles  Smith,  the  third  son  of  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  and 
Rebecca  Smith,  was  born  at  Philadelphia,  oh  the  4th  of  March,  1765, 
and  was  baptized  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sturgeon;  John  Moore,  Esq.,  and 
Mr.  Charles  Smith,  both  of  London,  being  sponsors. 

His  early  education  was  under  the  care  of  his  father,  in  Philadelphia, 
and  subsequently  at  Washington  College,  Maryland,  where  he  grad- 
uated at  the  commencement  held  on  the  14th  day  of  May,  1783,  deliv- 
ering the  valedictory  oration  on  that  occasion.* 

Having  completed  his  collegiate  education,  he  commenced  the  study 
of  the  law  with  his  eldest  brother,  William  Moore  Smith,  at  Easton, 
Northampton  county,  Pa.,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Philadelphia 
in  June,  1786. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  opened  his  office  in  the  town  of 
Sunbury,  Northumberland  county,  Pa.,  where  his  industry  and  rising 
talents  soo'.  procured  for  him  the  business  and  confidence  of  the  people. 
He  was  elected  a  delegate,  with  his  colleague,  Simon  Snyder,  to  the 
convention  which  framed  the  constitution  for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
adopted  in  1790,  and  was  looked  on  as  a  very  distinguished  member 
of  that  talented  body  of  men.  Although  differing  in  the  politics  of  that 
day  from  his  colleague,  yet  Mr.  Snyder  for  more  than  thirty  years  after- 
wards remained  the  firm  friend  of  Mr.  Smith,  and  when  the  former 
became  the  Governor  of  the  State  for  three  successive  terms,  it  is  well 
known  that  Mr.  Smith  was  his  confidential  adviser  in  many  great  State 
matters. 

Mr.  Smith  was  married  on  the  3d  day  of  March,  1791,  to  Mary, 
daughter  of  Jasper  Yeates,  one  of  the   Supreme   Court  judges  of  the 

*  See  Maryland  Journal, ,and  Baltimore  Advertiser,  July  8,  1 783. 


APPENDIX.  571 

State,  and  soon  after  removed  from  Sunbury  to  Lancaster,  where  Judge 
Yeates  resided. 

Under  the  old  Circuit  Court  system  it  was  customary  for  most  of  the 
distinguished  country  lawyers  to  travel  over  the  northern  and  western 
parts  of  the  State  with  the  judges,  and  hence  Mr.  Smith,  in  pursuing 
this  practice,  soon  became  associated  with  such  eminent  men  as  Thomas 
Duncan,  David  Watts,  Charles  Hall,  John  Woods,  James  Hamilton, 
and  a  host  of  luminaries  of  the  middle  bar.  Among  them  Mr.  Smith 
always  held  a  conspicuous  station,  and  his  practice  was  consequently 
lucrative  and  extended.  The  settlement  of  land  titles  at  that  period 
became  of  vast  importance  to  the  people  of  the  State,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  the  law  had  to  be  laid  with  regard  to  settlement  rights,  the 
rights  of  warrantees,  the  doctrine  of  surveys,  and  the  proper  construc- 
tion of  lines  and  corners.  In  the  trials  of  ejectment  cases  the  learning 
of  the  bar  was  best  displayed,  and  Mr.  Smith  soon  was  looked  on  as  an 
eminent  land  lawyer.  In  after  years,  when  called  on  to  revise  the  old 
publications  of  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  under  the  authority  of  the 
Legislature  to  frame  a  new  compilation  of  the  same  (generally  known 
as  "Smith's  Laws  of  Pennsylvania"),  he  gave  to  the  public  the  result 
of  his  knowledge  and  experience  on  the  subject  of  land  law  in  the  very 
copious  note  on  that  subject  which  may  well  be  termed  a  Treatise  on 
the  Land  Laws  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  same  work  his  notes  on  the 
Criminal  Law  of  the  State  are  elaborate  and  instructive  to  the  student 
and  the  practitioner. 

Mr.  Smith  was  appointed,  on  the  27th  day  of  March,  1819,  President 
Judge  of  the  Judicial  District  composed  of  the  countie*  of  Cumberland, 
Franklin  and  Adams,  where  his  official  learning  and  judgment,  and  his 
habitual  industry  rendered  him  a  useful  and  highly  popular  Judge. 

On  the  erection  of  the  District  Court  of  Lancaster  City  and  County, 
he  became  the  first  President  Judge,  and  was  duly  commissioned  April 
28,  1820,  which  office  he  held  for  some  years.  He  afterwards  removed 
with  his  family  to  Baltimore,  where  he  lived  a  few  years,  and  finally  re- 
moved to  Philadelphia,  where  he  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life,  and 
died  in  that  city  on  March  18,  1836,  aged  71  years.  He  was  buried 
from  his  residence,  No.  12  Clinton  square,  in  his  family  vault,  in  the 
yard  of  the  Church  of  the  Epiphany. 


572  APPENDIX. 


No.  XV. — Page  542. 


Richard  Smith. 

Richard  Smith,  the  fifth  son  of  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  and 
Rebecca  Smith,  was  born  at  Philadelphia,  on  the  25th  of  January, 
1769,  and  was  baptized  in  Christ  Church,  on  the  19th  of  March  follow- 
ing, by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Peters,  his  sponsors  being  Dr.  Smith  and  Richard 
Hockley,  Esq.,  Receiver-General  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania. 

His  youth  passed  during  the  troublesome  times  of  the  Revolution, 
and  the  early  impressions  then  made  upon  his  mind  appear  never  to 
have  been  forgotten.  Carefully  educated  by  his  father,  he  soon  became 
a  good  classical  scholar,  and  imbibed  a  love  for  literature  which  he  re- 
tained and  enjoyed  until  the  day  of  his  death. 

Soon  after  leaving  college  he  commenced  the  study  of  law,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  Philadelphia  on  the  27th  day  of  February,  1792. 
He  subsequently  located  himself  at  Huntingdon,  the  seat  of  justice  for 
Huntingdon  county,  which  had  been  erected  in  1787;  but  the  precise 
time  of  his  going  there  is  not  known.  In  the  act  erecting  the  county 
and  fixing  the  seat  of  justice,  it  recited  "that  the  proprietor  of  said 
town  had  agreed  t;o  lay  off  and  set  apart  a  proper  and  sufficient  quantity 
of  grounds,  for  the  site  of  a  court  house,  county  gaol  and  prison,  and 
hath  engaged  to  give,  assure  and  convey  the  same  to  the  Common- 
wealth, in  trust  and  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  said  county;"  there- 
fore certain  trustees  were  named  and  appointed  to  carry  the  same  into 
effect.  On  the  25th  of  August,  1791,  in  pursuance  of  the  agreement 
under  which  Huntingdon  had  been  made  the  county  seat,  Dr.  Smith 
conveyed  lot  No.  41,  on  the  east  side  of  St.  Clair  (now  Second)  street, 
to  Benjamin  Elliott,  Ludwig  Sell,  George  Ashman,  William  McAlevy, 
Richard  Smith  and  Andrew  Henderson,  Trustees,  as  a  site  for  a  county 
prison. 

The  first  appearance  of  Mr.  Smith  in  the  courts  of  the  county  seems 
to  have  been  in  1795,  as  he  was  there  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  bar 
in  that  year.  He  was  regarded  as  a  ripe  scholar,  an  ornament  to  the 
bar,  and  soon  occupied  a  prominent  position  at  it.  He  was  personally 
popular,  and  spoken  of  as  being  "the  pride  of  the  village."  From  1797 
to  1 80 1   he  represented  the  district  composed  of  the  counties  of  Hunt- 


APPENDIX.  573 

ingdon,  Bedford  and  Somerset  in  the  State  Senate  in  a  manner  highly 
satisfactory  to  his  constituents,  and  then  resumed  his  professional  duties. 

He  was  married  at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  on  the  7th  day  of  May,  1804,  to 
Miss  Letitia  Nixon  Coakley,  the  marriage  ceremony  being  performed 
by  the  Rev.  Joseph  Clarkson,  at  the  house  of  William  Montgomery,  Esq. 
Then  returning  home,  he  settled  down  at  the  place  he  had  selected  for 
his  future  residence,  on  the  bank  of  the  Juniata,  about  half  a  mile  above 
the  town  of  Huntingdon,  and  well  known  as  "  Cypress  Cottage."  Here 
he  continued  to  reside  until  his  death,  which  occurred  suddenly,  on  the 
ist  day  of  October,  1823. 

The  "cottage"  stood  upon  elevated  ground,  a  short  distance  from 
the  river,  surrounded  by  shade  and  fruit  trees,  as  well  as  shrubbery, 
with  its  several  out-houses  and  fences,  all  neatly  whitewashed,  present- 
ing an  air  of  comfort,  and  making  it  a  most  inviting  spot.  To  the 
right  of  the  cottage  a  handsome  lawn  extended  down  to  the  bank  of  the 
river,  well  shaded  by  large  buttonwood  and  other  trees,  and  which 
became  the  resort  of  the  young  people  of  the  town  for  their  pic-nic 
parties,  and  where,  on  each  annual  return  of  our  national  birthday,  it 
was  duly  celebrated  in  a  most  patriotic  manner.  Here  the  military  and 
citizens  of  the  town  marched  in  procession  to  hear  the  reading  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  usual  oration,  and  then  all  par- 
ticipated in  a  good  dinner  spread  on  a  long  table  erected  under  the 
shade  of  the  grand  old  trees.  The  farm  attached  to  the  cottage  as  well 
as  the  one  on  the  island  were  both  well  cultivated,  and  about  thirty  feet 
to  the  right  of  the  dwelling  stood  a  two-story  building  called  ''The 
Study."  In  this  was  a  large  and  well-selected  library,  and  here,  amidst 
his  books,  Mr.  Smith  spent  many  happy  hours,  either  quietly  attending 
to  his  business  or  perusing  his  favorite  authors. 

The  walk  along  the  river  bank  was  a  very  pleasant  one,  and  much 
used  by  the  young  people.  Calls  were  almost  daily  made  (especially  in 
summer)  at  the  cottage,  where  all  were  hospitably  welcomed,  as  the 
"  latch-string  was  always  out."  And  in  return,  it  is  but  just  to  say  that 
"Uncle  Richard  "  and  "Aunt  Lettie,"  as  they  were  familiarly  called 
by  all,  were  respected  and  loved  by  both  old  and  young  in  the  town. 

Thus  time  passed  on.  Mr.  Smith  had  inherited  and  also  acquired 
much  landed  property,  but  eventually,  from  various  causes,  found  him 
self  financially  embarrassed,  and  had  to  see  much  of  his  property  sacri- 
ficed to  satisfy  his  creditors.  The  hard  times  following  the  war  in  1815, 
the  worthless  paper  currency  then  in  circulation,  and  the  depreciation 
in  real  estate,  can  only  be  appreciated  by  those  who  witnessed  the 
scenes  occurring  at  that  day. 

In  February,  1821,  Mr.  Smith  was  appointed,  by  Governor  Heister, 


574  APPENDIX. 

Recorder  of  Deeds  and  Register  of  Wills  for  Huntingdon  County, 
which  offices  he  accepted,  and  continued  to  discharge  their  duties  until 
the  day  of  his  death. 

To  add  to  his  difficulties,  he  now  found  himself  involved  in  a  law 
suit  about  the  title  to  a  piece  of  property  in  the  borough  of  Hunting- 
don, the  amount  involved  not  being  large,  according  to  the  valuation 
of  property  in  the  town  at  that  day,  yet  he  had  come  to  consider  it  as 
the  great  event  of  his  life.  He  prepared  for  the  trial  with  much  anxiety 
of  mind,  as  if  his  future  prosperity  depended  upon  its  result,  or  he 
feared  something  serious  would  happen.  At  length  the  day  of  trial 
came,  and  its  progress  was  watched  by  him  with  the  most  intense  in- 
terest until  its  close,  when  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  in  his  favor.  A 
motion  was  made  by  his  opponent  for  a  new  trial,  and  this  was  argued 
upon  the  second  day  after  the  rendition  of  the  verdict.  Upon  the  argu- 
ment he  was  grossly  insulted,  and  statements  made  by  his  opponent 
which  Mr.  Smith  promptly  arose  to  deny.  He  was  sternly  ordered  by 
the  court  to  sit  down,  when  he  slowly  sank  down  in  his  seat,  his  head 
fell  forward  and  rested  upon  the  counsel  table,  having  been  seized  with 
apoplexy.  His  nephew,  General  William  R.  Smith,  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  bar,  caught  him  in  his  arms  and  had  him  carried  to  the  open 
air  at  the  door  of  the  court  room,  where  Dr.  Henderson  immediately 
attempted  to  bleed  him,  but  all  in  vain,  and  in  less  than  ten  minutes 
he  was  dead ! 

The  consternation  and  confusion  this  event  occasioned  in  court  caused 
it  to  immediately  adjourn,  and  nothing  further  was  done  in  the  cause. 
His  funeral  took  place  in  a  few  days,  his  body  being  followed  to  the 
grave  by  the  members  of  the  bar  and  a  large  concourse  of  citizens  of  the 
town  and  county,  among  whom  he  had  so  long  resided.  The  following 
inscription  covers  his  grave  and  that  of  his  elder  brother,  by  the  side 

of  whom  he  was  buried : 

Sacred 

To  the  memory  of 

Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  M.  D., 

Born  Nov.  18,  1760, 

Died  July  9,  1789; 

And  of 

Richard  Smith,  Esq., 

Born  Jan.  25,  1769, 

Died  Oct.  I,  1823, 

Sons  of 

"William  Smith,  D.  D. 

In  life 

United  in  brotherly  love; 

In  death 

They  are  not  divided. 


apt  end  ix.  575 

In  personal  appearance  Mr.  Smith  is  described  by  those  who  knew 
him  "as  a  large,  portly,  fine-looking  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  pos- 
sessing the  most  attractive  social  qualities,  and  all  the  elements  of  popu- 
larity were  combined  in  him." 

His  widow,  Letitia  Nixon  Smith,  was  a  refined  and  intelligent  lady, 
and  continued  to  reside  in  Huntingdon  for  some  years  after  the  death 
of  her  husband,  devoting  her  time  to  the  interests  of  education,  Sunday 
schools  and  the  church.  She  finally  removed  to  Athens,  Tenn.,  and 
spent  the  remainder  of  her  days  with  her  nephew,  Thomas  Nixon  Van- 
dyke, Esq.  There  she  died  and  was  buried,  some  thirty  years  or  more 
after  the  death  of  her  husband. 

Among  the  fugitive  pieces  written  by  my  father,  Richard  Penn  Smith, 
I  find  the  story  of  "My  Uncle  Nicholas,"  and  no  doubt  he  had  his 
uncle  in  view  when  it  was  written.  As  an  evidence  of  his  style  of 
writing,  I  here  add  it : 

"MY  UNCLE  NICHOLAS. 

"  BY  RICHARD  PENN  SMITH. 

"'Call  no  man  happy  'till  you   know  the  nature  of  his  death;    he  is  at  best  but  for- 
tunate.'— Solon  lo  Crasus. 

"Time  eats  the  children  he  begets,  and  the  memories  of  few  men 
outlive  their  monuments;  nay,  myriads  pass  into  oblivion  even  before 
the  elements  have  sullied  their  epitaph.  My  uncle  Nicholas,  notwith- 
standing his  deserts,  has  not  escaped  this  order  of  things.  I  knew  him 
in  the  April  of  my  years — the  flower-time  of  my  life;  and  as  my  mind 
reverts  to  those  sunny  days,  the  first  object  it  rests  upon  is  the  beloved 
image  of  my  uncle  Nicholas. 

"He  was  a  placid  being,  overflowing  with  the  best  of  humanities. 
His  heart  and  his  doors  were  open  to  all  his  fellow-beings,  and  there 
was  not  a  creature  endued  with  animal  life  towards  which  he  did  not 
studiously  avoid  giving  pain.  His  dogs  loved  him,  and  he  could  not 
walk  abroad  into  his  fields  but  his  cattle  followed  him,  and  fed  out  of 
his  hand. 

"  'He  was  a  scholar,  a  ripe  and  a  good  one,'  at  least  I  viewed  him 
as  such  in  my  boyhood-  His  mind  was  stored  with  good  learning,  but 
his  favorite  companions  were  those  hearty  old  poets  who  have  retained 
their  freshness  for  centuries,  and  who  possess  a  reproductive  faculty  that 
will  make  them  blossom  through  succeeding  ages.  With  what  delight 
would  he  pore  over  the  harmonious  numbers  of  Spencer,  and  Drayton, 
and  Drummond,  and  the  vigorous  dramatists  of  those  times !  and  there 
was  scarcely  a  gem  of  the  minor  poets  that  he  had  not  culled  to  grace 


57&  APPENDIX. 

his  memory.  These  he  would  recite  with  all  the  feeling  and  enthusiasm 
of  early  life,  and  at  times  I  imagined  they  were  golden  links  that  insep- 
arably bound  him  to  his  boyhood.  They  appeared  to  possess  the  faculty 
of  making  him  young  again. 

"He  was  a  quiet  humorist,  but  with  no  more  gall  than  might  be 
found  in  a  dove.  His  face  was  ever  mantling  with  some  pleasant 
thought,  and  his  mind  flowed  on  as  gently  as  a  secret  brook,  that  ever 
and  anon  dimples  and  smiles  at"  its  own  babbling. 

"  He  was  married,  and  my  aunt  was  one  of  the  gentlest  of  creatures. 
You  might  have  searched  the  world  without  finding  a  pair  whose  hearts 
and  minds  so  perfectly  harmonized.  She  was  a  delicately  attuned  in- 
strument, ever  breathing  the  softest  music ;  never  depressed  to  sadness, 
and  seldom  exhilarated  beyond  a  placid  smile.  If  perchance  she 
laughed,  it  was  at  some  jest  of  my  uncle  Nicholas;  not  that  it  excited 
her  risible  faculties,  but  that  she  perceived  by  the  mantling  of  his  coun- 
tenance there  was  more  intended  than  came  within  the  scope  of  her 
apprehension;  and  she  would  laugh  outright  that  he  might  more  fully 
enjoy  the  freak  of  his  imagination.      How  they  loved  each  other! 

"  My  uncle  dwelt  on  a  farm  on  the  outskirts  of  a  village.  He  had 
selected  it  as  a  residence  in  early  life,  and  had  lived  long  enough  to 
see  the  primitive  settlement  assume  something  like  a  name  on  the  map 
of  his  country.  He  was  identified  with  the  spot;  all  the  villagers  in  a* 
measure  looked  upon  him  as  a  patriarch,  and  even  the  children  would 
break  off  their  amusements  to  salute  him  as  he  passed;  and  he  ever  had 
a  kind  word  and  a  jest  to  bestow  upon  the  humblest  of  the  little  troglo- 
dytes. They  all  called  him  uncle  Nicholas,  and  he  was  so  kind  to  them 
that  many  grew  up  in  the  belief  that  he  was  actually  the  uncle  of  the 
whole  village. 

"  His  residence  was  a  delightful  spot.  His  farm  was  well  cultivated, 
and  his  buildings,  while  they  afforded  every  comfort,  were  not  so  osten- 
tatious as  to  awaken  the  envy  of  his  less  prosperous  neighbors.  A  river 
flowed  beside  it,  and  in  the  rear  were  shady  walks  of  sugar  maple,  to 
which  the  villagers  would  resort  of  a  summer  afternoon  for  recreation, 
and  few  would  fail  in  returning  to  stop  at  my  uncle's  cottage  and  par- 
take of  the  hospitality  of  his  board.  Indeed  he  and  his  were  looked 
upon  as  common  property. 

"At  these  social  gatherings  all  the  belles  of  the  village  would  rival 
each  other  to  secure  my  uncle's  attention.  He  was  ever  the  gayest 
among  the  gay,  while  his  gentle  manners  and  playful  fancy  ministered 
to  the  delight  of  all;  and  it  was  amusing  to  behold  the  quiet  compla- 
cency of  my  aunt  as  she  gazed  on  his  little  gallantries,  and  to  watch  her 
countenance  gradually  light  up,  as  her  mind  would  pass  from  the  scene 


appendix.  577 

before  her  to  the  halcyon  days  when  he  wooed  and  won  her,  and  then 
she  would  turn  to  her  next  neighbor  and  whisper,  in  a  tone  mingled 
with  pride  and  fondness,  '  You  see  his  winning  ways  have  not  yet  left 
him.'  And  then  she  would  smile  and  look  on  in  silence,  as  if  life 
could  afford  no  delight  like  gazing  on  my  uncle  Nicholas  when  he  was 
happy. 

"Happy! — the  heavens  themselves  are  never  so  bright  and  clear  but 
that  a  cloud  overshadows  some  portion,  and  there  lives  not  that  man 
whose  mind  is  so  free  but  that  at  some  period  a  phantom  pursues  it, 
from  which  he  fears  escape  is  impossible.  My  uncle's  phantom  was  the 
dread  of  poverty.  He  had  lived  generously,  and  from  his  habits  and 
tone  of  mind  was  ill  calculated  to  increase  his  possessions.  As  he  ad- 
vanced in  life  he  perceived  that  his  property  had  imperceptibly  wasted 
away ;  and  to  increase  his  terrors,  there  was  a  lawsuit  against  him  that 
had  been  pending  many  years.  He  dreaded  its  termination  would  re- 
sult in  ruin,  though  convinced  that  justice  was  on  his  side;  but  the 
boasted  trial  by  jury  is  by  no  means  as  infallible  as  its  encomiasts  pre- 
tend, for  it  is  a  difficult  matter  for  one  man  who  does  not  understand 
his  case  to  explain  to  twelve  who  frequently  are  incapable  of  compre- 
hending the  matter  under  any  circumstances.  And  by  this  frail  tenure 
do  we  cling  to  our  possession  of  liberty  and  life.  The  sword  of  Damocles 
is  a  type  of  the  trial  by  jury. 

"  It  was  a  melancholy  sight  to  behold  the  old  gentleman,  term  after 
term,  attending  court  to  learn  the  issue  of  his  cause.  It  absorbed  all 
his  faculties  and  sapped  the  very  foundation  of  his  mind.  He  was  wont 
to  have  a  word  and  a  cheerful  smile  for  all  he  met,  but  now  he  would 
pass  his  next  neighbor  without  token  of  recognition.  His  little  friends, 
the  children,  no  longer  followed  him.  His  favorite  volumes  remained 
undusted  on  the  shelves — their  charm  had  passed  away,  and  those  vernal 
fancies,  that  were  wont  to  make  his  heart  like  a  singing  bird  in  spring, 
had  died  and  it  sung  no  more. 

"He  would  at  times  struggle  to  disengage  his  mind  from  the  phan- 
tom that  embraced  it  with  iron  clutches,  and  affect  more  cheerfulness 
in  the  presence  of  my  aunt,  for  he  perceived  that  his  melancholy  was 
contagious.  How  tenderly  she  watched  over  him,  and  soothed  him 
and  encouraged  him  !  God  bless  her  !  At  one  of  those  tender  inter- 
views, which  were  frequent,  he  appeared  suddenly  animated  with  hope 
— the  world  was  open  to  him — he  was  a  man,  and  could  labor  like  other 
men — his  countenance  brightened,  and  he  exclaimed,  exultingly: 

"  'The  spider  taketh  hold  with  her  hands  and  is  in  kings'  palaces.' 
He  fondly  looked  into  the  recess  of  his  wife's  heart  through  her  glisten- 
ing eyes,  and  continued:  'The  ants  are  a  people  not  strong.'  He 
37 


578  APPENDIX. 

paused,  and  finished  the  proverb  in  a  tone  scarcely  audible — 'yet 
they  prepare  their  meat  in  the  summer.  Alas !  the  snows  of  many  win- 
ters are  on  my  head.'  A  tear  dropped  from  his  eye  on  the  pale  forehead 
of  the  partner  of  his  bosom.     She  consoled  him  no  more  that  day. 

"He  had  contracted  various  small  debts  with  the  tradesmen  of  the 
village,  among  whom  were  some  newcomers  who  had  not  known  him  in 
his  palmy  days.  And  even  if  they  had,  the  chances  are  that  it  would 
not  have  altered  their  conduct  towards  him.  Few  men  make  an  aegis 
of  the  past  to  shield  them  from  present  evils.  True,  he  has  been  as 
liberal  as  the  sun  that  shines  on  all  alike  without  distinction,  but  how 
soon  do  we  forget  the  splendor  of  yesterday  if  the  sun  rise  in  clouds 
to-morrow. 

"  His  creditors  became  impatient,  and  though  there  was  some  hesita- 
tion in  taking  out  the  first  execution,  yet  that  being  done,  others  fol- 
lowed as  regularly  as  links  of  the  same  chain.  There  was  a  time  when 
he  felt  as  confident  and  secure  among  the  villagers  as  in  the  bosom  of 
his  own  family ;  but  now  there  was  no  longer  safety  for  the  sole  of  his 
foot  on  his  hearthstone.  He  was  humbled,  and  he  moved  among 
his  neighbors,  a  broken  down  man,  with  fear  and  trembling,  dreading 
all  whom  he  chanced  to  meet. 

"At  length  his  library  was  seized  upon  and  sold.  His  books  were 
of  no  great  value  to  any  other  than  himself,  but  he  prized  them  beyond 
every  thing.  He  had  bought  them  in  his  boyhood;  to  lose  them  was 
to  sever  the  chain  that  bound  him  to  happier  days,  and  as  he  beheld 
them  scattered  one  by  one,  he  wept  as  if  they  had  been  things  of  life 
that  had  abandoned  him  in  his  misfortunes. 

"  It  was  a  melancholy  sight  to  behold  him  after  this  event,  seated  in 
his  study,  gazing  on  the  empty  shelves,  and  repeating  various  choice 
passages  from  his  favorite  volumes.  I  witnessed  him  once,  looking  in- 
tently on  the  vacant  spot  where  a  fine  old  copy  of  'Herrick's  Poems' 
had  stood  for  near  half  a  century.  I  knew  the  place  well,  for  at  that 
time  it  was  my  delight  to  delve  for  the  pure  ore  of  that  'very  best  of 
English  lyric  poets.'  A  melancholy  smile  came  over  his  bland  counte- 
nance, and  he  repeated,  in  a  low  tremulous  voice : 

"  Call  me  no  more, 
As  heretofore, 

The  music  of  the  feast 
Since  now,  alas ! 
The  mirth  that  was 

In  me,  is  dead  or  ceased. 


APPENDIX.  5/9 

"  Before  I  went 
To  banishment 

Into  the  loathed  west  ; 
I  could  rehearse 
A  lyric  verse 

And  speak  it  with  the  best. 

"  But  time,  ah  me  ! 
Has  laid,  I  see, 

My  organ  fast  asleep ; 
And  turn'd  my  voice 
Into  the  noise 

Of  those  that  sit  and  weep. 

"  His  eyes  slowly  moved  along  the  empty  shelves  until  they  rested 
upon  a  place  that  had  been  occupied  by  a  collection  of  the  old  dramat- 
ists.    He  smiled,  though  he  shed  tears: 

"'Beshrew  me,  but  thy  song  hath  moved  me.'  I  turned  from  the 
window  through  which  I  was  gazing,  unperceived,  and  left  him  breath- 
ing fragment  upon  fragment. 

"  My  uncle  was  accustomed  to  rise  with  the  sun,  and  continued  his 
habit  to  the  last.  But  he  no  longer  enjoyed  the  songs  of  the  birds,  the 
babbling  of  the  waterfall,  nor  the  fresh  breeze  of  the  morning  laden 
with  fragrance — their  influence  had  departed  from  them;  still,  he  ad- 
hered to  his  custom,  and  would  wander  from  his  green  meadows  to  the 
maple  grove,  and  from  the  grove  to  the  river,  as  if  in  pursuit  of  some- 
thing—he knew  not  what.  On  his  return  his  usual  remark  was,  '  Is  it 
not  strange  that  the  flowers  should  have  lost  their  fragrance,  and  the 
little  birds  their  skill  in  singing  ! '  In  happier  days  how  he  would 
praise  the  flowers  and  the  birds  ! 

"As  term-time  approached,  his  malady  ever  increased.  His  morning 
meal  would  scarcely  be  over  when  he  would  adjust  his  dress,  and  call  for 
his  hat  and  cane,  and  on  being  asked  whither  he  was  going,  he  would 
invariably  reply :  '  To  the  village  to  see  my  friends.  Of  late  they  have 
ceased  to  come  here,  and  it  is  right  that  I  should  see  them.'  He  would 
for  hours  walk  from  one  end  of  the  village  to  the  other,  and  bow  to  all 
who  accosted  him,  yet  pause  to  converse  with  none;  and  on  his  return, 
when  my  good  aunt  would  inquire  whether  he  had  seen  his  friends,  the 
constant  reply  was,  'No,  I  have  fallen  in  with  none  of  them.'  Alas! 
my  poor  uncle,  how  thy  brain  must  have  been  shattered  to  imagine  that 
a  man  in  adversity  can  ever  find  his  friends  ! 

"At  length  the  dreaded  day  arrived — his  cause  was  marked  for  trial, 
and  in  a  few  hours  the  result  would  be  known.  The  matter  in  dispute 
was  not  of  such  a  great  moment,  but  he  had  brooded  over  it  until  his 


580  APPENDIX. 

fears  had  magnified  it  to  vital  importance.  His  opponent  was  a  coarse 
and  brutal  man,  and  in  their  protracted  contest  the  abruptness  of  his 
demeanor  had  awakened  whatever  latent  asperity  had  found  a  hiding- 
place  in  my  uncle's  bosom.  He  looked  upon  that  cause,  trifling  as  it 
was,  as  the  most  important  matter  of  his  life.  His  daily  thoughts  and 
irritated  feeling  had  magnified  it.  Even  the  little  ant,  by  constant  ap- 
plication, can  create  a  mound  altogether  disproportionate  to  its  size, 
and  there  is  not  a  column  so  beautiful  that  may  not  be  defaced  by  the 
trail  of  a  slimy  snail.  My  poor  uncle  feared  the  ant-hill,  and  recoiled 
at  the  filth  of  the  worm. 

"  The  morning  his  cause  was  to  be  tried  he  dressed  himself  with  un- 
usual care,  and  my  aunt,  knowing  the  bent  of  his  mind,  exercised  all 
her  little  appliances  to  encourage  him.  He  went  to  the  court-house  and 
took  his  seat,  a  dejected  man.  He  looked  around  as  if  in  search  of 
some  one  to  sit  beside  him  to  aid  and  sustain  him,  but  none  such  were 
present,  and  he  sat  alone. 

"  The  caus  was  called,  the  jury  empanelled,  and  the  investigation 
proceeded.  Every  question  that  arose,  in  its  progress  wrought  up  my 
uncle's  mind  to  painful  intensities.  In  the  ardor  of  his  feelings  he  at 
times  interrupted  the  proceedings,  and  was  rudely  ordered  by  the  court 
to  sit  down  and  be  silent.  He  obeyed,  while  every  fibre  of  his  frame 
shook  with  passion  and  offended  pride.  His  opponent  smiled  in  tri- 
umph as  he  beheld  his  confusion.  He  sat  alone;  no  one  approached  to 
sympathize  with  him,  and  he  felt  as  if  deserted  by  all.  In  consequence 
of  the  distracted  state  of  his  mind,  his  defence,  though  a  just  one,  had 
been  imperfectly  made  out.  Facts  had  escaped  his  memory;  papers 
were  missing  that  should  have  been  produced,  and  the  result  was,  the 
jury  returned  a  verdict  against  him  without  leaving  the  box.  It  fell 
like  a  thunderbolt  upon  him;  he  fancied  the  last  business  of  his  life  was 
over,  and  in  the  triumph  of  the  moment  his  adversary  taunted  him,  and 
openly  charged  him  with  dishonesty.  The  old  man  rose  to  repel  the 
insult,  while  every  limb  shook  with  passion  as  if  palsy-struck.  All  was 
confusion.  The  judges  interfered  to  preserve  order.  My  uncle  heard 
them  not.  He  was  commanded  to  sit  down,  but  still  persisted  to  vin- 
dicate his  character.  A  second,  a  third  time  was  he  called  upon  to  sit 
down  and  be  silent,  which  awakened  him  to  a  sense  of  his  position. 
He  beheld  his  antagonist  still  smiling;  he  slowly  sunk  into  his  seat,  and, 
as  if  abashed,  his  head  hung  over  his  bosom,  and  gradually  descended 
until  it  rested  on  the  desk  before  him.  Order  was  again  restored,  and 
the  court  proceeded  in  its  business.  A  few  moments  after  some 
one  approached  my  uncle,  and  on  raising  him  he  was  found  to  be 
dead  ! 


APPENDIX.  581 

"  Thus  died  that  good  old  man.  There  was  a  time  when  I  looked 
upon  him  being  secure  from  the  shafts  of  fate;  but  who  may  boast  of 
to-morrow  !  He  was  wealthy,  had  health  and  friends,  and  his  gentle 
spirit  made  his  home  a  paradise.  His  sources  of  enjoyment  were  bound- 
less, for  all  nature,  from  her  sublimest  mysteries  even  down  to  the  petals 
of  a  simple  flower,  was  one  mighty  minister,  and  he  drew  wisdom  and 
delight  from  all.  And  yet  a  single  cloud  was  magnified  until  it  over- 
shadowed his  heaven  of  happiness,  and  he  died  friendless  and  heart- 
broken;  all  had  vanished  that  made  earth  beautiful.  But  is  this 
strange? — The  flowers  of  life  pass  away  as  the  flowers  of  the  seasons, 
without  our  being  conscious  of  the  cause  of  their  decay,  and  there 
breathes  not  that  man,  however  prosperous,  but,  like  my  poor  uncle, 
hath  his  phantom,  and  in  time  discovers  that  'even  in  laughter  the 
heart  is  sorrowful  and  the  end  of  that  mirth  is  heaviness.'  " 


No.  XVI.— Page  551. 


William  Rudolph*  Smith. 

[By  Richard  Moore  Smith.] 

William  Rudolph  Smith,  the  eldest  son  of  William  Moore  Smith, 
was  born  at  La  Trappe,  in  Montgomery  county,  Pa.,  on  the  31st  day 
of  August,  a.  d.  1787.  The  family  removing  to  Philadelphia  in  1792, 
he  was  placed  at  school  under  the  tuition  of  Mr.  James  Little  and  his 
ushers,  this  being  at  that  time  the  largest  and  best  preparatory  school  in 
the  city.  In  1799  he  was  placed  in  the  Latin  school  of  the  Rev.  James 
McRea;  but  soon  afterwards  the  whole  care  of  his  education  was  as- 
sumed by  his  grandfather,  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.  D.,  who  received 
him  into  the  old  family  residence  at  the  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  where  he 
remained,  under  a  rigid  course  of  instruction,  until  April,  1S03,  when, 
as  private  secretary,  he  accompanied  his  father  to  England,  the  latter 
being  one  of  the  commissioners,  under  the  6th  article  of  the  Jay  treaty, 
to  adjust  and  settle  the  demands  of  the  British  claimants. 

During  their  protracted  residence  in  England  the  father  and  son 
travelled  much  together  at  various  times,  journeying  along  the  south 
coast  from  Dover  to  Falmouth,  visiting  all  points  of  interest  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  south  and  west,  and  making  frequent  and  extended  jour- 


*The    Rudulph    family  spelt   their   name   with   a  u.     My   uncle   always  spelt   his 
Rudolph. 


582  APPENDIX. 

neys  into  other  parts  of  the  kingdom.  In  London  their  time  was 
happily  spent  at  the  houses  of  many  friends,  and  particularly  at  the 
house  of  Charles  Dilly,  Queen's  Square,  so  often  mentioned  by  Boswell 
in  his  life  of  Johnson.  Mr.  Dilly  took  great  satisfaction  in  showing  to 
his  guests  the  arm-chair  in  which  Dr.  Johnson  always  sat  at  his  table, 
and  where  he  enjoyed  himself,  perhaps,  more  than  at  any  other  house 
in  London.  It  was  at  this  hospitable  table  that  Dr.  Johnson  met  with 
and  learned  to  tolerate  the  great  radical  leader,  John  Wilkes. 

In  Mr.  Dilly's  house  the  young  secretary  had  the  gratification  to 
meet  with  the  venerable  Pascal  Paoli,  with  Richard  Cumberland,  with 
a  brother  of  James  Boswell,  and  with  many  of  the  literary  celebrities 
and  other  notorieties  of  the  day.  And  Benjamin  West,  the  President 
of  the  Royal  Society,  in  his  attentions  to  the  father  and  son,  did  not 
forget  the  obligations  which,  in  early  life,  he  owed  to  his  friend  and 
patron,  Dr.  William  Smith. 

In  the  home  of  Mr.  West,  in  Great  Newman  street,  and  in  the  pic- 
ture-gallery, young  William  Rudolph  Smith  met  and  formed  friendships 
with  many  of  the  great  painters  and  artists  of  England  and  of  the  con- 
tinent, for  in  those  stirring  times  London  was  the  city  of  refuge  for  the 
emigres  and  for  all  classes  of  refugees  seeking  safety  from  the  whirlwind 
of  strife  then  sweeping  over  every  country  in  Europe.  George  Cadou- 
dal,  the  great  Vendean  chief,  and  General  Pichegrou,  both  afterwards 
concerned  in  the  attempt  to  assassinate  Napoleon,  were  among  the  ac- 
quaintances thus  formed.  These  London  days,  teeming  with  the  recol- 
lections of  Sarah  Siddons,  of  John  and  Stephen  Kemble,  of  the  old 
crazy  King  George  III.,  to  whom  he  had  been  presented  at  court,  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  Beau  Brummel,  of  the  soldiers  and  statesmen  who 
were  then  shaping  the  destiny  of  the  civilized  world,  were  the  solace 
of  many  an  hour  in  after  years,  and,  related  in  his  inimitable  way,  the 
delight  of  three  succeeding  generations  of  listening  friends. 

Intended  by  his  father  for  the  bar,  young  Smith,  during  his  residence 
in  England,  commenced  a  preparatory  course  of  study  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Thomas  Kearsley,  Esq.,  of  the  Middle  Temple,  and  from  this 
period  until  the  autumn  of  1808  he  was  a  diligent  student — for  the  first 
two  years  after  their  return  to  America  under  the  direction  of  his 
father,  at  his  country  residence,  five  miles  from  the  city,  on  the  Old 
York  road,  and  afterwards  in  the  office  of  James  Milnor,  in  Philadel- 
phia; in  after  years  Mr.  Milnor  removed  to  the  city  of  New  York,  and, 
having  taken  orders,  became  a  distinguished  minister  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  In  1808  Mr.  Smith  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Philadelphia; 
his  examiners  were  Richard  Rush,  Thomas  Ross  and  Peter  A.  Browne ; 
the  Judge  was  Jacob  Rush.     The  following  year  he  removed  to  Hunt- 


APPENBIX.  5  S3 

ingdon,  Pa.,  where  he  entered  into  the  practice  of  his  profession.  On 
the  17th  of  March,  1809,  he  was  married  to  Eliza  Anthony,  of  Phila- 
delphia, who  was  descended  on  the  father's  side  from  the  Rhode  Island 
family  of  that  name,  and  on  the  mother's  side  from  Michael  Hillegas, 
the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  during  the  Revolution. 

For  the  ensuing  eleven  years  Mr.  Smith  led  a  busy  life ;  assuming  at 
once  a  leadership  in  his  profession,  he  soon  became  extensively  known 
as  one  of  the  most  profound  lawyers  in  the  State.  He  was  appointed, 
in  181 1,  Deputy  Attorney-General  for  Cambria  County,  under  Walter 
Franklin;  he  was  reappointed  to  the  same  office  by  Richard  Rush, 
Attorney-General,  and  in  181 2  was  again  reappointed  by  Jared  Inger- 
soll,  Attorney-General. 

A  boy's  love  for  a  military  career  had  impelled  Mr.  Smith,  in  early 
life,  to  connect  himself  with  the  Third  Troop  of  Philadelphia  Light- 
Horse,  and,  whilst  a  member  of  this  body,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
riding  the  same  horse  which  had  carried  his  father,  when  a  member  of 
this  same  troop,  in  the  expedition  to  suppress  the  celebrated  Whiskey 
Insurrection.  His  taste  for  military  affairs  strengthened  with  advancing 
years,  and  caused  Mr.  Smith  to  study  carefully  the  question  of  the 
national  defences  and  the  organization  of  the  State  militia  forces.  He 
devoted  a  large  portion  of  his  time  to  the  study  of  field  tactics,  and  was 
active  and  energetic  in  the  thorough  organization  and  drilling  of  the 
Pennsylvania  militia,  in  which  he  served  in  various  grades  up  to  the 
rank  of  major-general.  In  the  war  of  1812-15  with  England,  he  was 
Colonel  of  the  62d  Regiment  of  Pennsylvania  Reserves,  and  com- 
manded that  regiment  when  ordered  up  to  Erie  to  support  General 
Scott  in  the  movement  on  Canada,  which  resulted  in  the  victory  at 
Lundy's  Lane.  General  Smith  was  in  Baltimore  during  the  siege  of 
that  city;  he  witnessed  the  disaster  at  Bladensburg,  the  subsequent 
occupation  of  Washington,  and  the  burning  of  the  Capitol  by  the 
British. 

In  civil  life  General  Smith  filled  with  distinguished  ability  the  various 
offices  to  which  he  was,  at  intervals,  elected  or  appointed.  He  served 
in  both  branches  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  held  many  offices  of 
civil  trust  and  honor,  and  in  January,  1S36,  was  admitted  Counsellor 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  at  Washington 

In  January,  1821,  General  Smith  lost  his  wife,  her  death  occurring 
very  suddenly,  after  a  brief  illness  of  a  few  hours  only.  Three  years 
afterwards  he  married  again,  his  second  wife  being  Mary  Hamilton  Van 
Dyke,  whose  family,  originally  from  Delaware,  had  removed  to  and 
settled  in  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

In  1827  General  Smith  removed  from  Huntingdon  to  Bedford  count}', 


584  ATP  END  IX. 

where  he  continued  to  reside  until  the  year  1837,  when  he  was  ap- 
pointed Commissioner  of  the  United  States,  in  conjunction  with  Gov- 
ernor Henry  Dodge,  to  treat  with  the  Chippewa  Indians  for  the  purchase 
of  their  pineries  on  the  Mississippi  river  and  its  tributaries.  The  journey 
into  the  Northwest,  in  the  fulfilment  of  this  trust,  forms  an  important 
epoch  in  the  life  of  General  Smith.  .  The  wonderful  resources  of  the 
country  in  all  that  makes  a  nation  happy,  rich  and  great,  impressed  him 
profoundly  as  a  statesman ;  with  prophetic  vision  he  saw  the  sceptre 
of  Empire  passing  from  the  East  to  settle  firmly  in  the  grasp  of  the 
Mighty  West;  instantly  he  resolved  to  be  one  of  those  earnest  pioneers 
who  turned  heroically  from  the  attractions  of  Eastern  life  to  devo'te 
their  lives  to  the  work  of  formulating  the  legislation  and  shaping  the 
destiny  of  these  States  of  glorious  promise.  His  letters  to  his  brother, 
Richard  Penn  Smith,  afterwards  published  in  Philadelphia,  under  the 
title  of  "Observations  on  Wisconsin  Territory,"  are  filled  with  glowing 
descriptions  of  this  paradise  for  farmers.  That  the  magic  beauty  of  the 
scenery  deeply  touched  his  poetic  nature  may  be  witnessed  by  the  fol- 
lowing lines  dashed  off  in  a  moment  of  tender  recollection: 

All  hail,  Wisconsin  !     Prairie  land, 

In  summer  decked  with  flowers, 
As  scattered  by  some  fairy  hand 

'Midst  sylvan  shades  and  bowers. 

Thy  soil  abundant  harvests  yields, 

Thy  rocks  give  mineral  wealth; 
And  every  breeze  that  sweeps  thy  fields 

Comes  redolent  of  health. 

Perennial  springs  and  inland  seas 

Give  other  beauties  zest; 
Long  may  thy  dwellers  live  in  ease, 

Gem  of  the  fertile  West ! 

Returning  to  Pennsylvania,  General  Smith,  in  1838,  removed  his 
family  to  Wisconsin  and  settled  in  Iowa  county,  at  Mineral  Point.  In 
1839  he  was  appointed  Adjutant  General  of  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin, 
by  Governor  Dodge,  which  office  he  continued  to  fill,  under  successive 
administrations,  for  more  than  twelve  years.  He  also  received  from 
Governor  Dodge  the  civil  appointment  of  District  Attorney  of  Iowa 
county,  retaining  this  office  also  for  many  years.  In  1840  he  was  called 
to  preside  over  the  first  Democratic  convention  that  assembled  at  the 
seat  of  government  of  Wisconsin  Territory,  and  he  drafted  the  address 
sent  forth  by  that  body  to  the  people.  He  was  elected  Secretary  of  the 
Legislative  Council  of  Wisconsin,  and  in  1846  was  elected  delegate  to 


APPENDIX.  585 

the  Convention  to  form  a  Constitution  for  the  State  of  Wisconsin;  the 
journals  of  that  convention  show  that  General  Smith  originated  many 
of  the  great  legislative  reforms  that  have  since  become  law,  not  only  in 
Wisconsin,  but  have  been  widely  adopted  in  other  and  older  States  of 
the  Union,  notably  the  "  Homestead  Exemption  Law,"  and  the  Rights 
of  Married  Women  to  hold  their  own  earnings  and  to  own  property, 
independently  of  and  beyond  the  control  of  their  husbands.  In  1849 
General  Smith  was  elected  Chief  Clerk  of  the  Senate,  and  again  in  1850 
was  re-elected  to  the  same  office,  receiving  a  unanimous  vote.  In  1849 
he,  together  with  a  few  other  citizens  of  kindred  spirit  and  with  similar 
tastes,  all  deeply  interested  in  collecting  and  preserving  matters  of  his- 
torical interest,  founded  the  "State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin." 
The  immediate  success  of  the  society  in  this  work  induced  the  Legis- 
lature to  place  the  institution  under  State  patronage.  A  room  in  the 
Capitol  was  assigned  for  their  use,  and  annual  appropriations  of  money 
made  to  carry  out  and  enlarge  the  designs  of  the  society. 

By  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature,  in  1852,  General  Smith  was  au- 
thorized to  compile  a  "  Documentary  History  of  Wisconsin  from  its 
Earliest  Settlement  to  the  Present  Time."  To  this  work  he  devoted 
several  years  of  his  life,  and  the  first  two  volumes  of  the  history  were 
published  by  the  State  in  1854. 

In  1856  General  Smith  was  elected  Attorney-General  of  the  State  of 
Wisconsin,  and  filled  the  office  with  marked  ability  for  two  years;  then 
having  reached  the  ripe  age  of  71  years,  he  deemed  it  best  to  rest  from 
his  labors  and  retire  from  active  professional  and  political  life,  intending 
for  the  remainder  of  his  days  to  quietly  enjoy  his  home,  his  library,  and 
the  society  of  his  family  and  intimate  friends.  Here  for  eleven  years 
more  he  was  the  delight  of  all  who  approached  him,  his  ripe  scholar- 
ship and  varied  information,  his  sparkling  wit  and  kindly  disposition, 
gave  a  charm  to  his  conversation  that  will  never  be  obliterated  from  the 
memories  of  those  who  knew  him.  His  reminiscences  of  Washington 
and  the  statesmen  of  his  day,  and  the  leading  incidents  of  those  early 
days  of  the  republic,  were  related  with  dramatic  effect;  the  hands  of 
Washington  had  rested  upon  his  head,  he  had  listened  to  the  first  read- 
ing of  the  Farewell  Address,  and  was  present  in  the  German  Lutheran 
church  in  Philadelphia  when  Major-General  Lee,  by  the  appointment 
of  Congress,  pronounced  the  funeral  oration  of  Washington.  He  was 
present  in  the  theatre  on  the  night  when  the  now  national  anthem  of 
"Hail  Columbia"  was  first  sung,  and  was  witness  to  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  the  song  was  greeted.  It  had  been  his  strange  fortune  to 
see  every  President  of  the  United  States  from  Washington  to  Lincoln; 
these  and  similar  recollections  served  to  entrance  a  generation  of  listen- 


586  APPENDIX. 

ers  who  could  look  upon  them  as  events  belonging  to,  to  them,  almost 
a  remote  antiquity. 

In  1868  General  Smith,  still  active  and  in  good  health,  made  the  tour 
of  Wisconsin,  visiting  many  of  his  old  friends  in  the  northern  and  east- 
ern part  of  the  State;  then  proceeding  to  Quincy,  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois, he  finished  his  tour  in  a  visit  to  his  youngest  daughter,  residing  in 
that  city  with  her  husband,  Mr.  Robert  H.  Deaderick.  And  here,  in 
the  fulness  of  years,  this  long  and  brilliant  life  came  to  a  quiet  and 
peaceful  close. 

General  Smith  during  all  his  life  was  an  active  and  prominent  Mason, 
passing  through  all  the  degrees  of  that  order,  from  the  Blue  Lodge  to 
the  Royal  Arch  Chapter.  He  was  several  times  made  Grand  Secretary, 
and  was  twice  Grand  Master  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Wisconsin.  He 
had  a  singular  love  and  veneration  for  the  order  while  he  lived,  and  he 
Was  buried  with  Masonic  honors  on  the  26th  day  of  August,  a.  d.  1868, 
at  Mineral  Point,  Wis.     A  Masonic  monument  marks  his  place  of  rest. 


No.  XVII.— Page  463. 


In  asserting  what  I  here  do,  I  do  not  forget  that  in  "The  Form 
of  Prayer  for  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners"  it  is  said,  in  that  part  of  the 
form  provided  for  "  persons  under  sentence  of  death,"  that  after  a  par- 
ticular confession,  by  the  person  under  sentence,  of  the  sin  for  which  he 
stands  condemned — which  confession  the  visiting  clergyman  is  to  exhort 
him  to  make — such  clergyman  shall  "declare  to  him  the  pardoning  mercy 
of  God,  in  the  form  which  is  used  i>i  the  communion  service ;"  that  form 
being  admitted  by  all  to  be  one  more  capable  of  being  interpreted  to  be 
a  form  of  "absolution"  than  any  other  in  our  Prayer  Book.  The  infer- 
ence drawn  therefore  by  some  is  that  the  church  here  puts  an  interpre- 
tation on  that  form  generally,  interpreting  it  wherever  it  occurs  in  the 
Prayer  Book  as  but  "a  declaration  of  God's  pardoning  mercy." 

Conversing  not  long  since  with  a  layman  of  our  church,  whom  I  have 
often  consulted  in  the  preparation  of  this  biography,  he  made  some 
remarks  of  which  what  follows,  so  far  as  I  remember,  is  the  substance.  I 
adopt  them  as  expressing  my  own  views  : 

I  do  not  consider  that  the  church  in  this  rubric  says  in  terms  exactly  what  these 
words,  brought  from  the  communion  service,  are  or  do,  except,  perhaps,  as  when  they 


APPENDIX.  587 

are  said  to  a  malefactor  convicted  of  crime  for  which  he  has  been  judicially  sentenced 
to  death,  and  who  now,  confessing  the  crime,  admits  his  awful  guilt.  And  I  think 
that  the  same  words  which  are  uttered  at  the  communion-table  over  bishops,  priests, 
deacons  and  baptized  laity  professing  to  be  religious — all  presumably  known  to  the 
minister,  and  all  presumably  guiltless  of  heinous  crimes — may  properly  be  left  to  have 
whatever  meaning  the  said  words  have  in  themselves,  or  as  read  by  the  light  of  postures 
prescribed,  or  by  the  light  of  other  things  existing  in  connection  with  them  ;  while 
those  same  words  may  well  be  restricted  in  meaning  by  a  rubric,  when  said  to  a  male- 
factor judicially  sentenced  to  death  for  what  may  be  the  most  dreadful  crime  known  to 
laws,  both  human  and  divine,  which  crime  he  now  confesses  that,  with  perhaps  num- 
berless others  like  it,  he  has  perpetrated.  The  minister,  we  must  remember,  in  visit- 
ing the  person  under  sentence  of  death,  may  have  never  seen  or  heard  of  him  until  the 
morning  of  the  execution,  and  just  before  the  minister  is  about  to  utter  over  the  wretched 
man  the  commendatory  "prayer  for  a  person  at  the  point  of  departure."  In  the  sin- 
cerity of  repentance  of  such  a  person — a  person  whose  whole  life  may  have  been  marked 
by  atrocious  crimes,  and  who  may  be  a  most  hardened  sinner,  having,  besides,  in  the  hope 
of  a  pardon  from  the  government,  a  motive  to  appear  repentant  when  not  so  in  reality 
— the  minister  may  utterly  and  rightly  disbelieve.  The  convict,  as  yet,  has  not  commu- 
nicated, and  he  may  wish  never  to  communicate. 

The  service  for  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners  is  not  in  the  English  Prayer  Book.  It 
comes  to  us  from  a  form  (somewhat  altered,  I  doubt  not)  set  forth  by  the  Convocation 
and  Parliament  of  Ireland,  and  first  appeared  in  the  Proposed  Book.  That  book  oblit- 
erated the  word  priest  from  its  rubrics,  substituting  for  it  the  word  minister.  This 
word  includes  deacons.  But  as  by  the  practice  of  the  Church  of  England,  deacons  do 
not  pronounce  "  absolution,"  the  Proposed  Book  characterizes  as  "  a  Declaration  con- 
cerning the  forgiveness  of  sins"  those  same  words  which  the  English  book  calls  "The 
Absolution  or  Remission  of  sins."  In  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners  it  therefore  made  its 
rubric  read  thus : 

"After  his  confession  the  minister  shall  declare  to  him  the  pardoning  mercy  of  God  "— 
Adding — 

"  in  the  form  which  Is  used  in  the  Communion  Service." 

The  Convention  of  1789,  ignoring  very  much  the  Proposed  Book,  used  as  the  basis 
of  its  work,  the  English  Prayer  Book,  and  generally  restored  the  word  priest  in  the 
rubrics,  or,  where  it  did  not,  as  in  the  Visitation  and  Communion  of  the  Sick,  guarded 
the  use  of  the  word  "  minister"  by  references — "  out."  But,  as  I  have  said,  this  service 
of  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners  was  not  in  the  English  book,  and  a  service  of  the  sort 
being  thought  a  most  fit  one  to  be  in  a  Prayer  Book,  the  Convention  took  it  irom  the 
Proposed  Book  ;  the  rubric  above  quoted,  with  its  word  "  minister,"  coming  in  as  part. 

Most  other  services  in  our  Book  of  1789  were  referred  to  committees,  were  reported 
on,  amended  and  discussed  ;  but  about  this  one  there  was  no  such  advisement.  It  was 
adopted  on  the  last  day  of  the  Convention's  session,  "originating,"  as  the  minutes  tell 
us,  in  the  House  of  Bishops,  and  being  "  passed  "  by  the  Deputies. 

Haste  and  its  usual  concomitant,  mistake,  seems  to  be  shown  by  what  followed 
as  a  result  in  the  Prayer  Book  of  1789,  then  made.  Those  same  words  which  in 
the  daily  and  evening  service  that  book  allows  the  priest,  alone,  to  say,  and  to  say 
only  in  a  certain  posture  (that  is,  standing),  and  which  the  people  are  allowed  to  hear 
only  in  a  certain  other  posture  (that  is,  kneeling),  and  which  in  the  communion  service 


5  °°  APPENDIX. 

a  Bishop  (if  a  Bishop  is  present)  alone  may  say,  we  here  allowed  a  deacon  to  say,  in 
any  posture,  to  a  malefactor  under  sentence  of  death  in  any  posture,  the  same  or  other; 
the  posture  before  the  "declaration  "  of  both  parties  having  been,  according  to  proba- 
bilities, that  of  sitting.  Indeed  Bishop  White  himself  tells  us  that  the  use  of  the  word 
"minister,"  in  the  book  of  1789,  instead  of  the  word  "priest,"  must  have  been  from 
"oversight"  (Brownell's  Family  Prayer  Book,  Ed.  of  1875,  p.  493). 

This  inconsistency  was  too  great  to  be  left,  and  in  the  standard  Prayer  Book  of  1838 
the  rubric  was  changed  by  putting  the  word  priest  in  the  place  of  the  word  minister* 
This  change  of  the  word  minister  to  the  word  priest  may  perhaps  of  itself  "  tone  up  " 
the  word  "  declare  "  from  a  low  meaning  (as  ex.gr.:  "state"  or  "make  known"), 
to  a  higher  one  (as  ex.  gr.  :  "  declare  officially  ;  "  that  is,  "  pronounce.")  If  it  does 
not  do  this,  why  was  the  change  made  ? 

The  Proposed  Book  prescribed  "  the  form  which  s  used  in  the  communion  service," 
instead  of  the  form  in  the  morning  and  evening  service  of  the  same  book  (the  form  of 
the  English  book,  and  the  first  of  the  two  forms  in  our  book  of  1789),  from  the  impro- 
priety, I  suppose,  of  making  a  convict  who  is  on  the  point  of  being  executed  praying 
that  "  the  rest "  of  his  life  "hereafter  "  may  be  pure  and  holy,  "  so  that  at  the  last"  he 
may  come  to  God's  eternal  joy. 

The  change  made  by  the  standard  of  1838  leaves  the  rubric  defective  and  awkwardly 
mended.  Is  the  "  priest  "  alone,  under  it,  to  "  visit  "  persons  under  sentence  of  death  ? 
Is  "absolution,"  of  any  kind,  to  be  given  to  one  who  has  been  confessedly  a  heinous 
malefactor,  and  who  has  not  communicated  ?  It  no  "  absolution  "  is  intended,  why,  as 
I  have  already  asked,  do  we  not  allow  the  thing  to  be  said  by  a  "  minister,"  as  of  old  ? 
I  recognize,  of  course,  the  old  distinction  of  absolutions  declarative,  precatory  and  ju- 
dicial.   But,  under  it,  the  form  in  the  communion  is  not  the  declarative  one. 

The  fact  is  that  the  committee  who  issued  the  standard  of  1838  had  a  difficulty  too 
great  for  any  committee  not  having  larger  power  than  it  had  to  manage.  They  were 
trying  to  raise  by  the  change  of  one  word  the  tone  of  a  rubric  improvidently  imported 
from  a  book  of  a  low  plane  of  churchmanship  throughout  (the  Proposed  Book),  and 
with  whose  other  rubrics  this  one  was  in  unison,  to  a  pitch  which  should  accord  with 
the  better  considered  rubrics  of  a  book  of  a  much  higher  plane  of  churchmanship  (our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  1789),  and  with  whose  rubrics  this  rubric  was  not  in  uni- 
son. If  I  remember,  the  committee  had  but  power  to  change  errors  in  typography. 
I  am  not  sure  about  this.  But  I  am  sure  that  in  their  present  state,  matters  are  not 
fully  enough  stated  to  be  clear.     The  thing,  however,  was  a  dangerous  one  to  handle. 

On  the  whole  case,  neither  the  old  rubric  nor  the  new  one  can  be  looked  on  as  inter- 
preting "the  form  which  is  used  in  the  communion  service"  anywhere  but  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Visitation  of  Prisoners  itself,  if,  indeed,  it  interprets  that  form  even  there. 

I  may  add,  that  even  in  the  Proposed  Book,  except  as  this  rubric  there  may  so  char- 
acterize it,  this  form — the  form,  I  mean,  used  in  the  communion  service — is  not  char- 
acterized as  a  "  Declaration  "  of  any  sort,  although  another  form,  in  language  truly 
declarative — though  with  an  entreaty  appended — and  which  other  form  the  Church  of 
England  calls  "  the  Absolution,  or  Remission  of  Sins" — is. 

For  Dr.  Smith's  private  declarations  that  the  Proposed  Book — which 
went  further  in  the  way  of  reform  of  the  English  Prayer  Book  than  does 
our  Prayer  Book  of  1789 — did  not  proceed  on  the  idea  that  the  Church 
of  England  was  in  anything  erroneous,  see  supra,  p.  178. 


INDEX. 


Abercrombie,  Rev.  Dr.,  I.,  563;  II.,  221. 
Academy,  opened,  I.,  53. 

account  of,  I.,  54. 

Episcopal,  II.,  28. 
Adams's,  John,  character  of  Dr.  Smith,  I., 

266,  334. 
Ahiman  Rezon,  II.,  53. 
Alexander,  William,  I.,  449,  n. 
Allen,  Dr.  Ethan,   II.,  35,  41. 

Rev.  Richard,  II.,  374. 
Allibone,  Dr.  S.  Austin,  I.,  485. 

great    value    of    his    Bibliographical 
Dictionary,  I.,  485,  n. 

one  of   its  merits,  its   history  of   the 
lesser  authors,  I.,  485,  //. 
Andrews,  Rev.  John,  D.  D.,  I.,  365;   II., 

243.  362. 

Andrews,  St.,  Society,  I.,  503. 

Antes,  Rev.  II.,  I.,  5S3. 

Antill,  Edward,  I.,  485,  498. 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  address  to,  I., 
269. 

Archbishops  and   bishops  of  England,  ad- 
dress of,  II.,  232. 
reply  to,  II.,  233. 

of  York  and  Canterbury,  address  to, 
II.,  301. 

Armor,  Rev.  Samuel,  I.,  469. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  at  Philadelphia,  II.,  14. 

"Art  and  Scenery  in   Europe,"  by  H.  B. 
Wallace,  Esq.,  II.,  215. 

Articles,  the  Thirty-nine,  II.,  212,  219. 

Attorney,  power  of,  from  the   Royal  Com- 
missioners to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  332. 

Auchmuty,   Rev.    Samuel,  commendation 
of  Rev.  R.  Blackwell,  II.,  470. 


Bachelor   of    Medicine,   degree    of,    II., 

3'2- 
Barton,   Rev.  Thomas,   I.,   120,  132,  579, 

(see  letters). 
Bass,  Rev.  Dr.,  II.,  351. 

consecration  of,  II.,  410. 
Beach,  Rev.  Dr.  Abraham,  II.,  103. 
Beckett,    genealogies     and     marriages    of 
various    persons  of    this    family  in 
Philadelphia,  II.,  495  7. 
Berrian,  Rev.  Dr.,  II.,  215,  11. 
Beveridge,  Bishop,  II.,  135. 
Biddle,  Owen,  I.,  438,  451  ;  II.,  10. 
Binney,  Hon.  Horace,  II  ,  19,  28,  235. 
Blackwell,  Rev.  Robert,  D.  D.,  a  memoir 
of  him,  II.,  469 
his  ancestry,  on  Long  Island,  N.  V., 

II.,  467.' 
a  graduate  of  Princeton,  II.,  469. 
studies   medicine    in   early   life,   II., 

469,  470. 
studies  divinity  with  Rev.  Dr.  Auch- 
muty, or   Rev.   Mr.   Samuel    Sea- 
bury,  II.,  470. 
recommended    as   "  a   serious    good 
young    man"    by  the    furmer,   II., 
470. 
letter  from  Rev.  Dr.  Peters,  II.,  472. 
ordained  June,  1772,  II.,  473. 
a  missionary  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  II.,  473. 
takes  charge  of  the  mission  of  Clou- 

cester,  N.  J.,  II.,  473. 
desires    no    connection    with    Metho- 
dists, II.,  474. 
enters,  A.  D.  1776,  the  army  as  chap- 
lain and  surgeon,  II.,  476. 

(589) 


590 


INDEX. 


Elackwell,  Rev.  Robert,  D.  D.,  becomes, 
A.  D.  1781,  one  of  the  ministers  of 
"the  United  Churches,"  II.,  477. 

is  attacked  by  yellow  fever,  A.  1>. 
1793,  but  recovers,  II.,  479. 

his  sermons  characterized,  II.,  480. 

a  very  useful  man  in  the  church  and 
otherwise,  II.,  481. 

retires,  A.  D.  1811,  from  active  minis- 
terial service,  II.,  485. 

action  of  the  United  Churches  on  the 
event,  II.,  485. 

domestic  and  family  affairs,  II.,  486. 

Thomson  Westcott's  description  of 
his  dwelling-house,  II.,  486. 

various  references  to  him  in  this 
work,  I.,  366,  433,  466,  n. ;  II.,  61, 
103,  104,  362,  371,  379. 

death  and  character  of  his  wife,  with 
stanzas  to  her  memory,  II.,  61-3. 
Blodget,  Mr.  Samuel,  II.,  514. 

Mrs.,  her   wit    and    beauty,   I.,  472; 

II-,  344- 

Bond,  Phineas,  writes  inscription  on  Wil- 
liam Moore,  II.,  500. 

Book,  the  Proposed,  II.,  116,  118,  119, 
132,  204-239,  256,  261,463. 

Bouquet,  Colonel  Henry,  I.,  368. 

Bradford,  Colonel  'William,  I  ,  164. 

Brief,  the  king's,  I.,  306. 
layers,  I.,  306. 

Bronson,  Enos,  Esq.,  his  fine  literary  tal- 
ents, and  sketch  of  him,  II.,  520. 
Wm.  White,  the  Rev.,  his  son,  II.,  521. 

Brunholtz,  Rev.  Peter,  I.,  65. 

Buchanan,  Rev.  Dr.  E.  V.,  value  of  his 
"  History  of  Oxford    Church,"  I., 
260,401. 
thoroughness    of    his    historical    re- 
searches, I.,  260,  401. 

Burke,  Rev.  Jesse  Y.,  II.,  473- 

Burnet,  Bishop,  II.,  135. 

Bute,  Lord,  I.,  302,  320. 

Cadwalader,  General  John,  II.,  253. 

genealogies,  marriages,  deaths,  etc., 
of  various  descendants  of  his,  II., 
550,  551,  560. 


Cadwalader,  Hon.  John,  II.,  551. 

Canal,  the  Union,  II.,  407. 

Carey,  Matthew,  II.,  365. 

Carolina,  South,  condition  of  church  in, 
II.,  225. 

"  Case  of  the  Episcopal  churches  consid- 
ered," II.,  185,  258-271. 

"  Century  of  Beneficence,"  by  Hon.  J.  W. 
Wallace,  LL.  D.,  I.,  425  ;  II.,  116. 

Chambers,  two  of  General  Convention, 
II.,  287. 

Chandler,   Dr.  Samuel,   I.,  40,  43,   315, 

35°- 
Dr.  Thomas  B.,  I.,  25,  386,413;  II., 
226. 
Chauncey,  Dr.  Charles,  I.,  387. 
Chester     Parish,    testimonial    of,    to     Dr. 

Smith,   II.,  240. 
Childs,  Rev.  Dr.  John  A.,  his   memoir  of 
Rev.    Alexander    Murray,    D.    D., 
II.,  501. 
Church,  High  and  Low,  II.,  457. 

English    and  American    identical    in 

doctrine,  II.,  463. 
Reformed  Episcopal,  II.,  204,  228. 
Cincinnati,  Society  of,  II.,  318. 
City  Tavern,  meeting  at,  I.,  493. 
Claggelt,  Dr.,  elected  Bishop,  II.,  351. 
his  consecration,  II.,  351. 
sermon  by  Dr.  Smith  at,  II.,  352. 
Club,  Orpheus,  I.,  293,  n. 
Colestown,  St.  Mary's  Church  at,  L,  434. 
College   of    Philadelphia,    Dr.    Smith    a 
teacher  at,  I.,  26. 
Dr.  Smith,  Provost,  I.,  45. 
its  charter  to  confer  degrees,  I.,  99. 
commencement,  1757,  I.,  153. 
1759,  I.,  209. 

1761,  I.,  276. 

1762,  I.,  290. 

1763,  I.,  330. 
1765,1.,  363. 

1766,  I.,  393. 

1767,  I.,  408. 

1770,  I.,  457. 

1771,  I.,  469. 

1775-  !•»  5°°- 
1776,  L,  563- 


INDEX. 


591 


College  of   Philadelphia,  closed,  I.,  571, 

577- 
medical  department,  I.,  364. 
Society  of  Alumni,  I.,  153. 
vote  of  thanks  of,  to   Dr.  Smith,  I., 

357- 
no  meeting  of  trustees  of,  II.,  10. 
work  of  reconstruction,  II.,  15. 
attack  upon,  by  President  Reed,  II., 

20. 
minute  of  trustees,  II.,  22. 
charter  abrogated,  II.,  23. 
repeal  of  act  of  1779,  II.,  27,  255. 
charter  restored,  II.,  305. 
College,  Washington,  of  Maryland. 

General  Washington  a  subscriber  to, 

II.,  78. 
General  Washington  a  trustee  of,  II., 

65- 
.  sketch  of,  II.,  65. 

instrument  of  trust,  II.,  S3. 

declaration  of  visitors,  II.,  83. 

visitors   of  Kent   County    School    to 

General  Washington,  II.,  85. 

answer  to  above,  II.,  85,  S6. 

proceedings   of   Maryland  Assembly, 

II.,  S6. 

first  commencement,  II.,  87-90. 

see  also  II.,  466. 

"Comparative  View,"  White's,  II.,  213. 

Constitution,   church,  ratified   by    Eastern 

clergy,  II.,  285. 

Coombe,  Rev.  Thomas,  I.,  261,  394-5. 

Conventions,  church,  1760,  I.,  262. 

1761, 1.,  277. 

1764,  I.,  358. 

1765,  I.,  3S5. 
general,  desires  for,  II.,  104. 

first  steps  towards,  II.,  104. 

meeting  of  "  Corporation  for  Re- 
lief," etc.,  II.,  105. 

laymen  consulted,  II.,  105. 

meeting  held  May  25,  1 784,  II., 
107. 

meeting  called  for  October  6, 
1784,  II.,  106. 

sketch  of  convention  of  1 784, 
II.,  115. 


Conventions,  general,  sketch  of  convention 
of  17S5,  II.,  119. 

alterations   in   Prayer   Book  pro- 
posed, II.,  1 19. 
committee     to     publish      Prayer 
Book,  II.,  I40. 
Convention,    general,   of    17K9,    II.,  264, 
361,362. 

adjourned,  of,  1789,  II.,  291. 

179?,  II  .  35°- 
1795,  II.,  409. 
1799,  II.,  411. 
1801,  II.,  415. 
Corporation    of    Christ    Church    and    St. 
Peter's  become  separate,  I.,  324. 
for   Relief  of  Widows,  etc.,  I.,  416, 
423;   II.,  104,  105,  116,465. 
Coudon,  Rev.  J.,  II.,  41. 

Mrs.,  II.,  41. 
Council    of   Philadelphia,   communication 

to,  I.,  51. 
Creed,  the  Athanasian,  II.,  23S. 
Cress,  Peter,  charges   Dr.  Smith  with  dis- 
loyalty, II.,  14. 

Davies,  Rev.  F.,  D.  D.,  Memoir  by  him 
of  "  Dr.  William  Smith,  of  Step- 
ney," II.,  274,  n. 

Deane,  Silas,  I.,  517. 

De  Benneville,  George,  II.,  371. 

De  Lancey,  Bishop,  I.,  278,  565. 
Governor,  I.,  27. 

Dennie,  Joseph,  I.,  346. 

Denny,  Lieutenant-Governor,  I.,  180. 

Dickinson,  John,  I.,  359. 

Doctor  in  Medicine,  qualifications  for  a, 
II.,  312. 

Doddridge,  Dr.,  I.,  444. 

Dorr,  Rev.  Dr.  Benjamin,  I.,  277,  278, 
410;   II.,  297. 

Duche,  Rev.  Dr.,  I.,  75,  153,  211,  214, 
215,  219,  229,  261,  263,  265. 

Dupont,  Francis  Xavier,  II.,  370. 

Eclipse  of  sun,  A.  D.  1776,  II.,  10. 
English  Bishops,  address  to,  II.,  232. 
"Episcopal  Church,  The  Case  of,  Consid- 
ered," Bishop  White's  tract,  so  ear- 


59- 


INDEX. 


titled,  vindicated  from  the  charges 
put  upon  it  by  American  Low 
Churchmen,  II.,  185,  258,  271. 

Episcopate,  Colonial,  I.,  385,  413. 

Erskine,  Lord  Chancellor,  married  Frances 
Moore,  II.,  493,  494. 

Eulogy  on  Franklin,  anecdote  of,  II.,  344. 
memorandum  on,  II.,  346. 

"  Europe,  Art  and  Scenery  111,"  II.,  215. 

Evans,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  I.,  326,  366,  434, 
479;   II.,  60. 

Ewing,  Rev.  Dr.,  I.,  283;  II.,  306,  315. 

Fever,  the  Yellow,  II.,  365,  479. 
sermons  on,  II.,  379. 

Fire  Company,  Hand-in-Hand,  Dr.  Smith, 
Bishop  White,  Dr.  Blackwell,  and 
most  eminent  citizens  of  Philadel- 
phia, members  of,  I.,  465. 

Foggo,  Rev.  Dr.,  II.,  207. 

Folhergill,  Dr.  John,  of  London,  memoir 
of,  I.,  590. 

Francis,  Tench,  I.,  54. 

Franklin,  Dr.,  applies  to   Dr.  Johnson   to 
take  headship  of  academy,  I.,  24. 
approves  of  schools  for  Germans,  I., 

25- 

is  a  commissioner  at  Albany,  I.,  47. 

seeks  an   intercourse  with  Dr.  Smith, 
I.,  24. 

opposes  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  128,  335. 

claims  Kinnerley's  discoveries,  I.,  341. 

misrepresents  the  college,  I.,  349. 
Dr.  Smith,  I.,  357. 

made   President  of  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, I.,  464. 

his  bad   character  in  Philadelphia,  I., 

344.  5S7- 

colonial   agent,   protests   against   his 
appointment  as  such,  I.,  587. 

his  "  Prayer  Book,"  II.,  174,  257. 

death  of,  II.,  324. 

eulogy  on,  II.,  329,  344,  346. 
Franks,  David  (British  Agent),  his  daugh- 
ter marries  Andrew   Hamilton,  II., 

494- 
descendants  of  these,  II.,  494-497. 
Funeral,  Dr.  Smith's,  II.,  448. 


Garrick,  I.,  319. 
Gates,  Thomas,  D.  D.,  II.,  94. 
Gauden,  Bishop,  II.,  135. 
German,  Education  Society,  I.,  40. 
trustees  of,  I.,  64. 
deputy,  I.,  71. 
importance  of,  I.,  97. 
schools  opened,  I.,  93. 
Sauer  opposes,  I.,  48,  68. 
Godfrey,  Thomas,  I.,  187,  389. 
Goldsborough,  Hon.  Charles,  I.,  289. 

Mrs.  Charles,  II.,  322. 
Gordon,  John,  D.  D.,  II.,  102. 
Governor,  address  of  convention  to,  I.,  266. 
Graeme,    Miss    Elizabeth,    afterwards    the 
well-known  "  Mrs.   Ferguson,"  I., 
289. 
Thomas,  I.,  473. 
Griffith,  Rev.    David,   afterwards    Bishop 
elect  of  Maryland,  II.,  61,  238,  265, 
266,  etc. 
Griswold,  Dr.  Rufus  Wilmot,  his   charac- 
ter of  Bishop  White,  II.,  223. 
of  the  Rev.  Robert  Blackwell,  D.  D., 
II.,  480,481. 

Hall,  Carpenter's,  II.,  286. 

Hamilton,     Andrew,      marries      Ahigail 
Moore,  II.,  494. 
his  descendants,  II.,  494-497. 
Governor,  I.,  208,  325. 
William,  I.,  293. 

marriages  and  genealogies  of  various 
persons  of  the  family  of  the  Wood- 
lands of  this  name,  II.,  494-497. 

Harrison,  family  of,  at  Gloucester,  N.  J., 
II.,  60-63. 

Hell,  descent  into,  II.,  165,  238. 

Henricks,  Captain,  I.,  541. 

Henry,  Mr.  William,  of  Lancaster,  the 
person  who  first  saw  and  patronized 
the  genius  of  Benjamin  West,  I., 
592. 

Hermit,  the,  II.,  444. 

High  churchmen  and  Low  churchmen, 
popular  ideas  about  distinctions  be- 
tween, unfounded  and  foolish,  II., 
455-  465- 


INDEX. 


593 


Hildeburn,  Charles  Riche,  his  talents  and 
acquirements  as  an  antiquary,  I., 
27S. 

Hills,  Dr.  George  Morgan,  II.,  251. 

Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  its 
great  services  to  the  State  spoken 
of  by  Governor  Hartranft,  I.,  369. 

Hobart,  Bishop,  II.,  458. 

Hopkins,  Bishop,  II.,  2S5,  459. 
J.  H.  (D.D.),II.,459,  "■ 

Hopkinson,    Hon.    Francis,   I.,   74,  293; 
II.,  166,  210. 
Thomas,  I.,  54. 

Hymns,  Dr.  Smith  advocates  them;  Bishop 
White  does  not,  II.,  210,  216,  220. 

Illinois,  land  company  of,  II.,  410. 
Inscription,    proposed    by    Dr.   Smith    on 

College    of     Philadelphia    at     the 

restoration  of  its  charter,  II.,  310. 
Inscriptions  in  St.  Peter's  churchyard,  by 

Messrs.    Bronson    and    Hildeburn, 

I.,  278. 

James,  Rev.  J.  W.,  tribute  to  his  worth, 
by  Christ  Church,  I.,  399;  II.,  227. 
Jauncey,  Dr.,  his  bequest,  I.,  287. 
Jay,  Dr.  (Sir  James),  I.,  300,  313. 

Hon.  John,  II.,  232. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  II.,  345. 
Jenney,    Dr.,    baptizes     William     Moore 
Smith,  I.,  214. 
and  Rev.  W.  Macclenachan,  I.,  216. 
an    invalid,    I.,   215,   221,  231,  263, 

265. 
his  order  to  his  congregation,  I.,  227. 
not  partial  to  the  college,  I.,  337. 
sketch  of,  death  and  burial,  I.,  286. 
lohnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  of  Connecticut,  his 
intimacy  with  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  24. 
asked  to  take  charge  of  academy,  I., 

24- 
his  work  on  Ethics,  I.,  24. 
his  life,  by  Chandler  and  Beardsley, 

I.,  25. 
Jones,  Hon.   Horatio   Gates,    Memoir   of 

Kinnersley,  by  him,  I.,  165,  «. 
Samuel,  sketch  of,  I.,  294. 

3& 


Jordan,  Mr.  John,  Jr.  (Vice-President  of 
the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsyl- 
vania), valuable  information  given 
by  him  about  the  early  life  of  Ben- 
jamin West,  I.,  592,  n. 

Kinnersley,  Rev.  Ebenezer,  memorial  win- 
dow in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania raised  to  him  by  efforts  of 
Senator  Horatio  Gates  Jones,  an 
alumnus,  I.,  341,  586. 
his  discoveries  in  electricity  appropri- 
ated by  Dr.  Franklin,  I.,  165,  340. 
memoir  of,  by  Hon.  H.  G.  Jones,  I., 
5S6. 

Kuhn,  genealogies  and  marriages  of  vari- 
ous persons  of  this  family  in  Phila- 
delphia, II.,  496,  497. 

Langguth,  John  M.,  II.,  252. 

London,  Bishop  of,  address  to,  I.,  271. 

Leech,  Thomas,  I.,  178. 

Letters,  Dr.  Andrews  to   Dr.  Smith,  II., 

243- 

Antill,  Edward,  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  498. 

Auchmuty,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel,  to  Rev. 
Dr.  Richard  Peters,  II.,  470. 

Barton,  Rev.  Thomas,  to  Dr.  Bear- 
croft,  I.,  133. 

Do.  to  Dr.  Peters,  I.,  580. 

Do.  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  120,  132,  489. 

Dr.  Bearcroft  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  101, 
163. 

Blackwell,  Rev.  Dr.  Robert,  to  Rev. 
Dr.  Richard  Peters,  II.,  472. 

Do.  to  Bishop  White,  II.,  485. 

Cadwalader,  Mrs.,  to  Mrs.  Ridgley, 
II.,  350,  445,  448. 

Chandler,  Dr.   S.,  to  Dr.  Peters,  1., 

354- 
to  trustees  of  German  Society,  I.,  40. 
Circular  (letter),  to  the  counties  of 

Pennsylvania,  I.,  496. 
Clergy  of  Philadelphia  to  Bishop  of 

London,  I.,  524. 
Coit,    Dr.    Thomas,    to    Horace    W. 

Smith,  II.,  290. 
Coke,  Mr.,  to  Bishop  White,  U.,.24,6-. 


594 


INDEX. 


Letters,     Colden,     Cadwalader,    to     Dr. 

Smith,  I.,  464. 
college,  trustees  of,  to  D.  Barclay  & 

Co.,  I.,  285. 
Do.         do.         to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  313. 
committee  of  general   convention  to 

Bishop  Seabury,  II.,  280. 
convention,  general,  to    Archbishops 

of     Canterbury     and     York,     II., 

239- 
Franklin,  Dr.,  to  David  Barclay,  I., 

591- 
Do.  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  23,  25,  28,  44, 

464,  472. 
Garrick,   David,  to  Drs.   Smith   and 

Jay,  I.,  319,  «. 
German  Society  to  trustees  of  London 

Society,  I.,  139. 
Hall,   David,  to   trustees  of   college, 

I.,  128. 
Herring,  Archbishop,  to   Dr.  Smith, 

I.,  29,  100. 
Jenney,  Dr.,  to  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, I.,  185. 
Do.  to  Rev.  W.  Macclenachan,  I.,  232. 
Do.  to  wardens  and  vestry  of  Christ 

Church,  I.,  232,  233. 
Johnson,  Sir  William,  to  Dr.  Smith, 

I.,  421. 
Johnson,    William    Samuel,   to    Dr. 

Smith,  I.,  487. 
Junius  to  Wesley,  I.,  521. 
Llewelin,   Dr.,  to    Dr.   Edwards,   I., 

356. 
London,  Bishop  of,  to  Dr.  Jenney  and 

others,  I.,  234. 
Do.  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  362. 
Macclenachan,    Rev.    W.,    to    Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  I.,  237. 
Madison,    Rev.   J.,  to  Dr.  Smith,  I., 

566. 
Maskelyne,   Nevil,  to  Dr.  Franklin, 

L,  448. 
Do.  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  448. 
Muhlenberg,   Mr.,  to   Dr.   Smith,   I., 

78. 
Muhlenberg,  Dr.,  to  Dr.  Smith,  II., 

250. 


Letters,  Murray,  Rev.  Dr.,  to  Dr.  William 

White,  II.,  237. 
McKean,  Rev.  Mr.,  to  Dr.  Bearcroft, 

I.,  181. 
McPherson,   John,   to    Captain    John 

McPherson,  I.,  542. 
Oliver,  A.,  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  485,  490. 
Oxford,   Bishop  of,  to  Dr.  Smith,  I., 

458- 
Parker,     Rev.     Samuel,    to     Bishop 

White,  II.,  303. 
Parsons,  William,  to   Dr.   Peters,  I., 

85. 
Penn,  Lady,  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  503. 
Penn,   Me.ssrs.  Thomas  and   Richard, 

to  trustees  of  college,  I.,  353. 
Penn,  Thomas,  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  351. 
Do.  to  trustees  of  college,  I.,  352. 
Peters,  Smith    and    Duche,    Drs.,  t® 

Bishop  of  London,  I.,  412,  45S. 
Peters,   Dr.,  to   Dr.   Smith,   I.,  320, 

325- 

Presbyterian  ministers  to  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  I.,  235. 

Priestley,  Dr.,  to  Dr.  Franklin,  I., 
519. 

Reiger  and  Stoy  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  84. 

Rittenhouse,  David,  to  William  Bar- 
ton, I.,  448. 

Do.  to   Dr.  Smith,  I.,  445,  452,  454, 

455- 

Seabury,  Bishop,  to  Bishop  White, 
IT.,  259,  275. 

Do.  to  convention  of  1789,  II.,  282. 

Do.  to  Dr.  Smith,  II.,  272,  275,  304. 

Schuyler,  General,  to  Captain  Mc- 
Pherson, I.,  543. 

Seeker,  Bishop,  to  Dr.  Samuel  John- 
son, I.,  42. 

Seeker,  Archbishop,  to  Rev.  W.  Mac- 
clenachan, I.,  246. 

Do.  to  Dr.  Peters,  I.,  354. 

Do.  to  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  258,  396. 

Do.  to  trustees  of  college,  I.,  350. 

Senior  class  to  trustees  of  college,  I., 
126. 

Smith,  Dr.,  to  Rev.  T.  Barton,  I., 
110,463. 


INDEX. 


595 


Letters,   Smith,   Dr.,  to   Barton,  William, 

I.,  444,  461. 
Do.   to   Bearcroft,   Dr.,  I.,  141,    149, 

273.  274.  28S. 
Do.  to  Biddle,  Owen,  I.,  451. 
Do.  to  Burd,  Colonel  James,  I.,  487. 
Do.  to  Chandler,   Dr.,  I.,  45,  77,  96, 

101,  392. 
Do.  to   college,  trustees    of,    I.,   26, 

3'5- 

Smith,  Nixon  and  Mifflin,  to  commit- 
tee of  Boston,  etc.,  I.,  492. 

Smith,  Dr.,  to  Cotman  and  Johnson, 
II.,  106. 

Do.  and  Jay,  to  England,  clergy  of, 

I..  3°9- 
Do.  to  Ennals,  Henry,  Esq.,  II.,  323. 
Do.  to  Gloucester,  Dean  of,  I.,  385. 
Do.  to  Goldsborough,  Hon.  Charles, 

II.,  322. 
Do.  to  Herring,  Archbishop,  I.,  86, 

118. 
Do.  to  Johnson,  Sir  William,  I.,  391, 

417- 
Do.  to  Morgan,  M.,  I.,  162. 
Do.  to  Parker,  Dr.,  II.,  202. 
Do.  to  Peters,  Dr.,  I.,  49,  317,  467. 
Do.  to  Reiger  and  Sloy,  I.,  81. 
Do.  to  Rodney,  Cajsar,  II.,  40. 
Do.  to  Rush,  Dr.,  II.,  372. 
Smith,  Hamilton  Allen,  and  others  to 

Rev.  Mr.  Schlatter,  I.,  92. 
Smith,  Dr.,  to   Seabury,  Bishop,  II., 

278. 
Do.  to  Seeker,  Bishop,  I.,  183. 
Do.  to  Sharpe,  Governor,  I.,  162. 
Do.  to  Smith,  Wm.  Moore,  II.,  412. 
Do.  to   Society,  Propagation,   I.,  29, 

381,  384,  406,  407,  414,  416,  434, 

457.  459-  460,  462,  465,  477,  490, 

528,  538. 
Do.  to  Stuart,  Gilbert,  II.,  447. 
Do.  to   Webb,   Joseph,  Esq.,  II.,  29, 

30.  31-33- 
Do.  to  West,  Dr.,  II.,  249,  255,  263, 

326. 
Do.  to  White,  Bishop,   II.,  95,   142, 

146,  148,   167,  171,  176,  181,  183, 


187,  192,  195,  197-199,  201,  236, 
238. 

Letters,   Smith,  Dr.,  to    Williams,    Jona- 
than, Esq.,  II.,  349. 
Smith,   Mrs.,  to  Smith,  Charles,  II., 

253.  254- 
Smith,    Richard     Penn,    to   his    son, 

Horace  Wemyss  Smith,  II.,  531  —4. 
Washington,     General,      to      Grand 

Lodge,  II.,  34S. 
Do.  to  Smith,  Dr.,  II.,  40. 
Webb,    Joseph,    to    Smith,    Dr.,    II., 

3°.3I- 

Wharton,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  II.,  to  While, 
Bishop,  II.,  154. 

White,  Bishop,  to  Blackwell,  Rev. 
Dr.  Robert,  II.,  484. 

Do.  to  Smith,  Dr.,  II.,  141,  144-146, 
148,  150-154,  165,  166,  170,  172, 
178,  1S1,  191,  194-196,  19S,  201. 

Wroth,  Dr.,  to  Smith,  Horace  W., 
II.,  308,  504. 
Low  churchmen  and  High  churchmen, 
popular  ideas  as  to  distinctions  be- 
tween, unfounded  and  foolish,  II., 
455-465. 

Macclenachan,    Rev.    W.,    disturbs     the 
church,  I.,  215. 
his  disrespect  to  Dr.  Smith,  L,  263. 
had    been  a  "  Dissenter  in  form,"  I., 

255- 
rector  of  St.  Paul's,  Philadelphia,  for 

two  years,  I.,  260. 
fails  to  appear  at  convention,  I.,  277. 
his   letters   and    also   the   replies    to 
them,  I.,  236,  259;   II.,  460,  461. 
Magaw,  Rev.  Samuel,  D.  D.,  I.,  65,  261, 

564;  II.,  104. 
Magazine,  American    (Colonel  W.   Brad- 
ford's,   of    1757),    edited    by    Dr. 
Smith,  I.,  164,  172;  II.,  444. 
Magazine,  Pennsylvania,  I.,  368. 
Martin,  W.  T.,  I.,  73. 
Maryland,  conventions  of,  II.,  36,  41,  64, 
94,  96,  108,  239,  241,  254. 
Convention  of,  to  Assembly.  II.,  37. 
state  of  church  in,  A.  D.  17S0,  II .,  35. 


5J*5 


INDEX. 


Maskelyne,  Nevil,  I.,  448. 

Masonic  Lodge,  address  of   and    to,  II., 

347.  4°9- 
celebration,  I.,  107;   II.,  II. 
Mausoleum,     Dr.     Smith's,    at     Falls    of 

Schuylkill,  II.,  415,  449. 
Mifflin,  Governor,  II.,  378,  412,  413. 
Mirania,  College  of,  I.,  21,  22,  23,  25. 
Money,  Continental,  II.,  15. 
Montgomery,  Mr.Thomas  H.,  great-grand- 
son of  Bishop  White;  valuable  con- 
tributions   to    this   work,  II.,   1S5, 
502. 
Moore,  Richard  Channing, Bishop,  II. ,490. 
Moore,  William,  of  "  Moore    Hall,"  ob- 
noxious to  Quakers,  etc.,  I.,  167. 
charges  against,  and  counter  address, 

I.,  16S-172. 
replies  to,  I.,  172. 
replies  translated  for  German  papers, 

I.,  172. 
in  custody,  I.,  172. 
tried  and  sentenced,  I.,  173. 
case  disposed  of  in   England  by  the 
king    in  council,  and    Moore  sus- 
tained, I.,  174. 
memoir  of,  and  of  his  ancestors  and 

descendants,  II.,  488,  541. 
death  of,  II.,  64. 
Muhlenberg,  Rev.  H.,  I.,  66,  69. 
Murray,  Rev.  Alexander,  memoir  of  him 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Childs,  II.,  237,  501. 

Neill,  Rev.  Hugh,  I.,  260;   II.,  59,  60. 
Nicholson,  "  Bishop,"  his  gross  ignorance, 

II.,  204. 
Norristown,  sketch  of,  I.,  56S. 
Norriton  Manor,  I.,  567. 
report  on,  II.,  31 1. 

Odell,  Rev.  Jonathan,  author  of  well- 
known  verses  on  Dr.  Franklin, 
I.,  456;  II.,  60. 

Odenheimer,  Rev.  W.  H.  (D.  D.),  opens 
St.  Peter's  Church  for  the  daily 
service,  II.,  207. 

Ogden,  Rev.  Uzal,  II.,  226. 


Onderdonk,  Bishop  Henry  Ustick,  the 
great  reasoner  and  logician  oj  the 
American  church,  II.,  459. 

Paca,  Governor,  appeal  of,  in  behalf 
of  religion,  etc.,  II.,  93,  99,  too, 
114. 

Penn,  Hon.  John,  II.,  408. 

Penn,  Lady  Juliana,  I.,  65. 

Penn,  Thomas,  his  gifts  to  the  College  of 
Philadelphia,  I.,  28,  65,  275,  306, 

437- 
welcomes  Dr.  Smith,  I.,  298. 
advocates     Philadelphia     and     New 

York  Colleges,  I.,  301. 
visited  by  Dr.  Smith  in  England,  I., 

331- 
Perry,   Bishop   William    Stevens,    I.,    88, 

428;   II.,  218,  242. 
Peters,  Rev.  Dr.  Richard,  sketch  of,  I.,  85. 
sponsor  of  William  Moore  Smith,  I., 

214. 
Do.  Thomas  Duncan  Smith,  I.,  262. 
baptizes  Williainina  Elizabeth  Smith, 

I.,  289. 
Do.  Richard  Smith,  I.,  421. 
rector    of    Christ    Church    and    St. 

Peter's,  I.,  322. 
his    churchmanship    of    an    amiable 

kind,  I.,  337. 
wanted  in  England,  I.,  323. 
his  tribute  to  the  Swedish  churches, 

I.,  338;  II.,  462. 
Petition   for   German   schools,   I.,  70,  80, 

81,  89-91. 
of  St.  George's,  Lutheran,  to  English 

archbishops  and  Bishop  of  London, 

I.,  360. 
of    Maryland    churches    to    General 

Assembly,  II.,  91. 
of  Dr.  Smiih  and  William  Gales  to 

General  Assembly,  II.,  94,  95. 
Philadelphia  evacuated,  II.,  13. 

address  to  citizens  of,  II.,  376. 
Pilmore,  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph,  I.,  261 ;  II.,  273. 
Prayer  Book,  committees  on,  II.,  288. 
adopted,  II.,  291. 
criticisms  upon,  II.,  292. 


INDEX. 


597 


Press,  Printing,  German,  I.,  69. 

Primus  (Dr.  Smith's  slave),  his  death,  II., 
416. 

Proprietaries,  the  Honorable,  address  to, 
I.,  268. 

Provoost,  Dr.,  II.,  238. 

Provoost,  Bishop,  and  Bishop  Seabury, 
II.,  273,  274,  289. 

Psalms,  selections  of,  II.,  215,  224,  291. 

Publications,  Dr.  Smith's  various,  II.,  534. 

Publication  Fund  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania,  its  great  service  to 
the  Commonwealth,  testified  to  by 
Governor  Hartranft,  I.,  368,  n. 

Queries,  Bishop  White's,  on  Preface  to 
Proposed  Book,  II.,  180. 

Reed,  President, attacks  the  college,  II.,  20. 

his  character,  II.,  28. 
Revere,  Paul,  bearer  of  the  Philadelphia 

resolutions,  I.,  494. 
Ridgely,  Dr.  Charles  G.,  II.,  252. 
Rights,     Declaration    of,    by    church    in 
Maryland,  II.,  97. 

presented  to  Governor  Paca,  II.,  99. 

Governor's  answer,  II.,  100. 
Rittenhouse,  David,  I.,  409,  438;   II.,  10, 

345- 
Roberdeau,    Daniel,    quarrels    with    Dr. 

Smith,  I.,  129. 
Rudulph,  Joseph,  II.,  408. 
Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  II.,  345. 

Dr.  Smith  thanks  him  for  sympathy 

during  the  yellow  fever,  II.,  372. 
Dr.  Smith's  low  estimate  of  his  un- 
derstanding, II.,  504-505. 

Sanderson,  Bishop,  II.,  135. 
Seabury,  Dr.,  II.,  226. 

consecration  of,  II.,  251. 
Do.  refused  on  political  grounds  by 
England,  II.,  272  (see  tit.  Letters). 
Scotch  Bishops,  succession  of,  recognized, 

II.,  277. 
Schuylkill    water,    introduction    of    into 
Philadelphia,  assisted  by  Dr.  Smith, 
II.,  410. 


Seeker,  Archbishop,  his  letters,  ability  and 

virtue,  I.,  246-259. 
Smith,  James,  father  of   Dr.  William,  I., 

17- 
Smith,     Hon.    Charles     (of    Lancaster), 

memoir  of,  II.,  570. 
Smith,  George  Washington  (of  Philadel- 
phia), memoir  of,  II.,  523. 
Smith,    Richard     (of    Huntingdon,    Pa.), 

memoir  of,  II.,  572. 
Smith,  Richard  Penn  (5th),  II.,  561. 
Smith,  Russell  Moore,  II.,  561. 
Smith,  Edgar  Wemyss,  II.,  561. 
Smith,  Hon.  Thomas,  Judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Pennsylvania,  me- 
moir of,  II.,  52°- 
Smith,  Dr.  William,  birth  and  parentage 
of,  I.,  17. 

education  and  early  writings,  I.,  21. 

graduates  at  University  of  Aberdeen, 
I.,  20. 

sails  for  New  York,  I.,  21. 

teaches  in  Academy  and  College  of 
Philadelphia,  I.,  26. 

returns  to  England,  I.,  28. 

is  ordained  deacon,  I.,  39. 

is  ordained  priest,  I.,  39. 

preaches  in  Scotland,  I.,  39. 

returns  to  America  and  is  elected 
Provost,  I.,  45. 

sermon  on  the  death  of  W.  T.  Mar- 
tin, I.,  73. 

issues  a  pamphlet  on  Pennsylvania, 
I.,  123. 

charged  with  disloyalty,  I.,  126. 

charge  examined,  Dr.  Smith  vindi- 
cated, I.,  127. 

senior  class  acts  and  approves  of  his 
loyalty  to  the  Crown  on  the  above 
charge,  I.,  126. 

Gazette  of  Franklin  &  Hall  refuses  to 
print  the  report  of  the  trustees,  I., 
128. 

sermon   on  condition  of  the  colony, 

I-  131- 
visits  Huntingdon,  I.,  132. 
sermon  to  forces  under  General  Stan- 

wix,  I.,  161. 


598 


INDEX. 


Smith,  Dr.  William,  arraigned  and  im- 
prisoned for  an  alleged  libel  on  the 
Quakers,  I.,  174. 

hears  his  classes  in  jail,  I.,  186. 

liberated  and  re-arrested,  I.,  187. 

address  to  colonies,  I.,  188. 

marries  Miss  R.  Moore,  I.,  193. 

Thanksgiving  sermon  on  campaign 
of  1758,  I.,  193. 

sends   an   appeal    to   the   Crown,  I., 

193- 

sails  for  England;  receives  the  de- 
gree of  D.  D.,  I.,  197. 

returns  to  Philadelphia,  I.,  214. 

mission  to  England  in  behalf  of  the 
college,  I.,  283. 

his  instructions,  I.,  285. 

sails  for  England,  I.,  290. 

appeal  for  college,  I.,  295. 

reception  by  Mr.  Thomas  Penn  and 
Archbishop  Seeker,  I.,  288. 

visits  Scotland,  I.,  313. 

presented  at  court  by  Mr.  Penn,  I., 
322. 

made  D.  D.  by  Trinity  College,  Dub- 
lin, I.,  330. 

visits  Mr.  Penn,  I.,  331. 

returns  to  America,  I.,  352. 

vote  of  thanks  by  trustees  of  college, 

I-.  357- 
on  Bouquet's  expedition,  I.,  370. 
purchases    land    at    Huntingdon,    I., 

397- 
is  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Oxford, 

I.,  401. 

lectures  on  natural  philosophy,  I., 
410. 

in  charge  of  Christ  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, I.,  410. 

chaplain  to  18th  regiment,  I.,  41 1. 

President  of  Corporation  for  Relief 
of  Widows,  etc.,  I.,  432. 

retires  from  the  above  in  1 789,  I.,  433. 

at  an  Indian  conference,  I.,  435. 

observes  transit  of  Venus,  I.,  436, 
456,  461. 

founds  the  Philosophical  Society,  I., 
437- 


Smith,  Dr.  William,  visits  South  Carolina 
in  interests  of  college,  I.,  467. 
address  before  Philosophical  Society, 

I.,  483. 
Do.  on  Colonial  Grievances,  I.,  495. 
his  opinions  on  the    Revolution,   I., 

5°4,  539- 

sermon   on  death  of  General   Mont- 
gomery, I.,  540. 

makes  a  large  purchase  of   land,  I., 

567- 
observes  transit  of  Mercury,  I.,  570. 
warrant  to  arrest,  as  a  Tory,  I.,  372. 
comment    on    statement     of    Bishop 

White,  1.,  574. 
at  Barbadoes  island,  II.,  9. 
Forty  Fort,  Wyoming,  II.,  10. 
returns  to  Philadelphia,  II.,  13. 
replies  to  charge  of  Peter  Cress,  II., 

14- 

removes    to   Chestertown,   Md.,  II., 

27. 
Principal     of    academy,     afterwards 

Washington  College,  II.,  27, 34,  64. 
preaches  at  St.  Peter's,  Philadelphia, 

II.,  39- 
proposes     General     Washington     as 

member  of  Philosophical  Society, 

II.,  40. 
sermon  on  Fast  of  1781,  II.,  41. 
Do.  on  capture  of  Cornwallis,  II.,  47. 
at  Gloucester  Mission,  II.,  60. 
elected  Bishop  of  Maryland,  II.,  100. 
testimonial  to  Bishop  of  London,  II., 

101. 
sermon  before  Convention  of  Mary- 
land, II.,  109. 
presides   at    General    Convention   of 

1784,  II.,  115. 
favors    extensive   changes    in    Prayer 

Book,  II.,  118. 
sermon  before  Convention  of   1785, 

II.,  214. 
foresees   our   national   greatness,   II., 

207. 
reply  to  English  bishops,  II.,  233. 
sermon    before   General   Convention 

of  1769,  II.,  265. 


INDEX. 


599 


Smith,  Dr.  William,  sermon  at  funeral  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Griffith,  II.,  267. 
with    Mr.   William    Henry,  of  Lan- 
caster,   one    of    Benjamin     West's 
earliest  and  most  valuable  patrons, 
I.,  591. 
proposes  to  leave  Maryland,  II.,  307. 
returns  to  Falls  of  Schuylkill,  II.,  310. 
sermon  before  the  Society  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati, II.,  318. 
appointed    "An    Agent    of    Informa- 
tion," II.,  328. 
eulogy  on  Dr.  Franklin,  II.,  329. 
published  sermons,  II.,  421. 
Do.  titles  of,  II.,  428. 
his  last  sermon,  II.,  445. 
his  last  will,  II.,  416. 
his  theological  views,  II.,  455-464. 
his  active,  useful  life,  II.,  465. 
obituary   notice   of  and    verses  upon 

Charles  Willing,  II.,  508. 
his  last  official  act,  II.,  448. 
his  last  illness,  II.,  446. 
his  funeral,  II.,  448. 
his  estate,  II.,  449. 
why    not     consecrated     Bishop    for 

Maryland,  II.,  450. 

Dr.    Wroth's    anecdotes    about,    II., 

504-505. 

Smith,  William,  "  of  Stepney,"  II.,  274, 11. 

Smith,  William   Moore,  I.,  214;   II.,  543. 

Smith,    William     Rudolph     (General,    of 

Wisconsin),  memoir  of,  II.,  581. 
Smith,  Hon.   Charles   (of   Lancaster),  II., 

320,  323,  570. 
Smith,  Elizabeth,  I.,  567. 
Smith,  George  Washington   (Senior  Vice- 
President  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania),  II.,  523. 
Smith,  Isabella,  II.,  416. 
Smith,  Richard,  I.,  421  ;   II.,  572. 
Smith,  Richard   Penn   (father  of  the   au- 
thor), I.,  479 ;    II.,  411,525. 
Smith,  Richard  Penn  (Colonel),  II.,  554. 
Smith,  Rebecca,  I.,  471 ;  II.,  350. 
Smith,   Hon.  Thomas,  Judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Penna.,  II.,  520. 
Smith,  Thomas  Duncan,  I.,  269;  II.,  574. 


Smith,  Williamina  Elizabeth,  I.,  289; 
II.,  102. 

Smith,  William  Moore,  his  birth,  I.,  214. 
graduates,  I.,  501. 
sketch  of,  I.,  573;  see  II.,  446. 

Spangenberg,  I.,  43. 

Standing  Stone  creek,  I.,  397. 

"  State  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  Consid- 
ered," II.,  271. 

State  House,  Convention  of  17S9  meets  in, 
II.,  286. 

Stewart,  General  Walter,  II.,  319. 

Stille,  Provost  of  the  college,  his  just  ap- 
preciation of  Dr.  Smith,  as  shown 
in  many  ways ;  a  worthy  successor 
of  him  ;  a  Restitutor  of  the  institu- 
tion of  which  Dr.  Smith  was  the 
Fundator  and  first  Condilor ;  prob- 
able loss  which  the  university  will 
suffer  by  his  retirement;  different 
references  to  him,  I.,  24,  124,  125, 
295.  335.   340;    II.,   21,  27,  316, 

318- 
Stone,  Mr.  F.  D.,  his  valuable   essay  on 

Continental  Paper,  II.,  15. 
Stoy,  William,  I.,  84. 
Stringer,  Rev.  William,  I.,  261,  423. 
Stuart,  Gilbert,  I.,  472;   II.,  413,  447. 
Sturgeon,  Mr.,  I.,  265,  322,  323. 
St.  Andrew's  Society,  I.,  503. 
St.  John's  Church,  II.,  445. 
St.  Paul's  Church,  I.,  259,  422,  423. 
St.  Peter's,  dedication  of,  I.,  277-282. 

a  separate  coqioration,  I.,  324. 

inscriptions  in  churchyard,  I.,  278. 

Berkeley,  Clarksborough,  II.,  473,  n. 
Synod,  Presbyterian,  I.,  217. 

Talbot,  Rev.  John,  II.,  251. 

Tavern,  One  Ton,  I.,  45. 

Tennent,  Rev.  William,  I.,  129. 

Title,  Protestant   Episcopal   Church,  II. ? 

38- 
Transit  of  Mercury,  I.,  570. 

of  Venus,  I.,  436,  456,  461. 

[  Union  of  churches  effected,  II.,  285. 


6oo 


INDEX. 


University  of  Pennsylvania  and  College  of 
Philadelphia  combined,  II.,  315. 
languishes,  II.,  318. 

Virginia,  state  of  Church  in,  II.,  225. 

protesters    in,    against    an    American 
Episcopate,  I.,  388. 
Venus,  transit  of,  I.,  436,  456,  461. 
Veto  with  House  of  Bishops,  II.,  284. 

Wallace,  Horace  Binney,  his  "Art  and 
Scenery  in  Europe,"  II.,  215. 

Wallace,  John  Bradford,  his  report  to  the 
Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  on  the 
proposed  change  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  State,  II.,  296. 
other  references  to,  II.,  520,  524. 

Wallace,  John  William,  LL.  D.,  President 
of  Historical  Society  of  Pennsyl- 
vania: his  address  in  the  New  Hall, 

I..  97- 

his    "  Century   of    Beneficence,"    I., 

425;  II.,  in. 
Wallace,  Joshua  Maddox,  of  Burlington, 

N.  J.,  sketch  of,  I.,  408. 
Washington,  General,  not  Grand   Master 

of  Masons,  II.,  34. 
no    hand    in    making    the    Proposed 

Book,  as  it  is  erroneously  alleged 

by  Mr.  Nicholson  that  he  had,  II., 

204. 
Waterford  (X.  J.),  St.  Mary's  Church,  II., 

471.473- 
Wemyss,  John,  II.,  52. 

genealogy  of  this  family,  II.,  498. 
West,  Benjamin,  history  of  his   early  life, 

I.,  591. 
West,  Dr.  William,  II.,  102. 
Wharton,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  H.,  II.,  140,  229. 
Whitby,  Dr.,  II.,  135. 
Williams,  Jonathan,  II.,  345. 
Will,  last,  of  Dr.  Smith,  II.,  416. 

executors  of,  II.,  419. 
Wilson,  Dr.  Bird,  II.,  459. 
Wilson,  Hon.  James,  I.,  409. 
White,  Bishop,  graduates,  I.,  365. 


White,  Bishop,  his  letter  for  Orders,  I., 

458- 
his    "  Case    of    Episcopal    Churches 

Considered,"  this  tract  vindicated, 

I.,  405;   II.,  185,  258,  502. 
and  Dr.  Blackwell  only  clergymen  at 

one  time  in  Pennsylvania,  I.,  403. 
refuses    to   preach    military  sermons, 

I.,  561. 
is  President  of  Corporation  for  Relief 

of  Widows,  etc.,  I.,  434. 
why   called    at    one    time  "  Doctor," 

instead  of  "  Bishop,"  I.,  389,  «. 
is  Chaplain  to  Congress,  II.,  10. 
and   Dr.  Blackwell  desire  and  get  a 

General  Convention,  II.,  103,  105. 
on  the  meeting  at   New  Brunswick, 

II.,  107. 
uses  the  "  Proposed  Book,"  II.,  132. 
opposed    to    extensive    changes,    II., 

141,  217,  219,  224. 
his   "  Hints    towards    a    Preface "   to 

Proposed  Book,  II.,  155. 
on  music  and  hymns,  II.,  220. 
recommended    for   consecration,  II., 

238. 
his  consecration,  II.,  264. 
and  Dr.  Smith  contrasted,  II.,  217. 
his  tribute  to  Dr.  Smith,  II.,  307. 
refuses  to  leave  Philadelphia  during 

the  yellow  fever,  II.,  379. 
and    Benjamin   R.  Morgan  with  Dr. 

Smith  in  his  last  illness,  II.,  446. 
buries  Dr.  Smith,  II.,  448. 
appointed  by  Dr.  Smith  to  be  one  of 

his  executors,  II.,  419. 
did  not  vote  for  himself  as  Bishop  in 

1786,  II.,  459. 
expresses  to  Rev.   Dr.  Blackwell  re- 
grets at   losing  his  services  at  the 

United  Churches,  II.,  485. 
Willing,  Charles,  memoir  of,  II.,  505,  507. 
Willing,  Thomas,  memoir  of,  II.,  10,  325, 

50S,  5io. 
Wroth,  Peregrine,  M.D.,  II.,  503. 
Wyoming,  lands  purchased  at,  I.,  47. 


